


Shards

by BeneathAScorpionSky



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime, Transformers: Shattered Glass
Genre: My First Fanfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2020-06-02 20:52:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 26
Words: 34,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19449331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeneathAScorpionSky/pseuds/BeneathAScorpionSky
Summary: After a spacebridge escape goes wrong the Decepticons of the warship "The Ally" find themselves trapped on a dystopian Earth, fighting to survive the brutal forces of the conjoined powers of the human goverment and evil Autobots.As they race to find a way off the planet the Decepticons make human allies of their own and discover a bizarre secret about the planet they've found themselves on.





	1. Pt 1

The deep silence of the recesses of the universe was cut through by sizzling bolts of energy, poured across the folds of space and time from battered ships that barely held together beneath the onslaught of the other side.  
Suddenly, one side broke away from the fight, nothing left of their armada but one warship and two sister support ships, the rest of their fleet scattered across the abyss. Every engine straining, the remnant tore through a cloud of gas, losing sight of their pursuers for a moment, but as they came through the other side, a massive shadow followed through, the rest of the enemy ships' scanners scrambled by the distortion from the cloud.

  
But there wasn't any hesitation from the routed ships. They where set and locked on a single set of coordinates.

  
A space bridge, constructed millennia ago as a last resort, now the only thing between the ships and utter obliteration.  
Fear drove the broken battered ships forwards in a dogged gamble for survival and blind hate pulled the second one after it, for no other reason than revenge.  
As the dwindling armada careened closer to the Space Bridge, the remaining two sister ships took a hit, almost simultaneously and burst into a thousand fragments that rattled on the hull of the warship.  
Shouts of rage and grief tore from the throats of the bridge crew as the remnants of their friends spattered against the veiwing port and battered against venting stations, like a hailstorm of dark stones.

  
There was no time even to process the pain, no time to even imagine attempting a rescue for those who possibly survived as the portal lit up in a blaze of green and white and the nose of the ship entered into the light.

  
Another shot rocked the ship and the spluttering of a dying engine echoed all too clearly as they slowed to a painful struggle, half-in half-out of the Bridge.  
But the enemy didn't slow, apparently their own engines damaged during the battle, and at full speed rammed into the smaller ship.

  
The momentum carried them both through the portal while simultaneous explosions tore the portal frame apart around them and sent them hurtling through far from the set coordinates.

  
As the light disintegrated around them, all anyone could see was the approaching surface of a planet, that wasn't supposed to be there.


	2. Pt2

-3 years later-

The sky was gray.  
But then again, the sky above the North American continent had been gray for the past three and a half decades. Ever since the barriers went up, blocking out the light.

  
It was supposed to be a shield, the ultimate defense, erected by public mass desire after Russia nuked the Hawaiian islands, utterly devastating them and rendering them totally incapable of supporting any sort of life for a supposed thousand years. But no one was certain, not anymore, since no one had left or even had contact from the outside world from the second the power generators went on.

  
There had only been one disruption in the consistency of the canopy, when a green swirling light opened up in the same space as the energy shield, disrupting the entire resonance and for a second, the sun shone again.  
Then the portal closed as two massive dark objects came hurtling through, smoke and fire pouring from the cracks in the hulls. They crashed in the heart of the Gobi desert, leaving chunks of burning metal and the bodies of the unearthly crews littered the sand, steam rising from rent metal skins.  
The larger never rose again, buried deep in the sand, it's thrust engines twisted beyond all repair.

  
The smaller of them managed to stagger back into the air, bent, broken, deprived of the larger part of her crew, barely able to function, but managing.  
It hovered at the edge of the barriers, trying to escape.

  
But now, though it could not escape, the warship Ally stayed at the edges of the barrier, using the dissonance caused by the short-wave energy ripples like a frightened bird used the edges of a cloud or the lower leaves of a tree to hide from the eyes of a hawk or cat, it's only method of reaching the ground to gather precious Energon and other much needed supplies was a badly damaged and sometimes unreliable Groundbridge, that usually worked, but other times put the commander and chief medical officer (also, the only medical officer) down in the middle of the Canadian wilderness when they where trying to reach coordinates in southern Florida to track down a possible Energon source.

  
But that only happened when the engines where at half-capacity, the United Continental Government of North America was trying to blow them out of the sky, and Breakdown had gotten himself stuck in the utilities storage unit.  
In other words, Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, was not having a very good day. And it was no way improved by the fact that he was manning the bridge entirely by himself since everyone else was either trying to free Breakdown or repair the Groundbridge.

  
A consul from the other side of the room beeped, drawing him away from the navigation system which he was trying to reconfigure in an attempt to relocate the lost crew members, and as soon as he turned around it reset.  
He hissed in frustration and returned to it, trying to recover the lost progress to no avail. He left it as the communications beeped again.

  
"Starscream? What's your status?"

  
"Cold," the commander's voice came shuddering across the line with a pathetic whine "And wet. This isn't Florida is it?"  
"No, you're in Canada. Near the Arctic circle."  
"The Arctic cir-" Starscream's went high pitched then cut off ito a growl of frustration.

  
"We're working on correcting the Groundbridge's coordination system. We should have you and the doctor back in..." he hesitated "In a couple of hours."  
"Ahhours?" The line crackled then there was a second's pause "Wait, the doctor's not still on the ship?"

  
"No? You mean he's not with you?"  
The consul beeped and Megatron opened a second communications line and immeadiatly, despite thousands of miles distance, Knockout's voice came loud and clear.

  
"Where. Am. I."

  
It wasn't even a really question, just an irritated resignation of the fact that the Groundbridge wasn't working again.  
"Take a guess," Megatron sighed.

  
"Not. Florida."

  
"Good guess. Now guess how long it's going to be before the Groundbridge is fixed?"

  
"Ack. Where's Starscream? I assume he's not in Florida either?"  
"No he's-" Megatron paused, trying to pull up the coordinates map "he's..." a red error warning flashed across the screen "Starscream where are you?"

  
"In the middle of a lake!"  
"Your coordinates, Starscream!"  
"Oh. I don't know. I'm waterlogged, I can't get any readings."  
"Doctor?"  
"I've got nothing, sorry sir."  
"Right. Well, as soon as I-"

  
Megatron started to turn, his elbows clattering against something that hadn't been there before.  
"Ahhgg! Soundwave! I told you not to sneak up on me like that!"  
"Sorry sir!" The masked communications officer dodged backwards "Incoming message from Silas, he says its urgent."

  
"It's always urgent," Megatron muttered "Alright. Commander, Dr. K, I'm closing the communication lines now, try not to get into too much trouble until we fix the Groundbridge."

  
"Riiiight," Knockout replied slowly "Cause we're not in any sort of trouble as it is."  
"Just, don't die."  
"I assure you, neither of us are planning on it."  
Megatron thought he heard a snicker as he closed the lines but couldn't tell if it came from Starscream or Soundwave.

  
No matter.  
He opened the visual comm and immediately Silas's weary face flickered across the screen.  
"Megatron," the scarred human greeted him flatly "I need your help."  
"What is it?"  
"We... have a situation."

  
Megatron winced. MECH had come to the Decpticons before with asking for help with their "situations" and almost invairiably it ended badly.  
"What's happened?"

  
"Early this morning the United Continental Goverment accused a man of MECH affilliations-"

  
"I thought MECH purposly avoided keeping records of those involved within its operations to avoid such scenarios?" Soundwave intterupted.  
"It doesn't matter much now," Silas said "Because one hour after accusing him, he was executed."

  
There was an awkward pause acrosd the comm. Megatron glanced down at Soundwave, then back at Silas and asked slowly.  
"I thought human law dictated that the accused has to have a trial before capital punishment can be given out?"

  
"Yeah," Silas said coldly "It does. But try telling that to the UCG."  
Soundwave raised a tentacle "Wait. If he's already dead, then what's the situation?"

  
"The UCG has taken it upon themselves to... make an example of those who decide to affiliate with MECH. They've planned a strike attack on the man's home, to go out within the hour. MECH can't get in close enough to attempt an evac."  
"So you want us to use the Groundbridge," Megatron felt his spark sink.  
"It's their only chance."  
"But our Groundbridge isn't working!"  
"Then we'll have to leave Breakdown in the storage unit and have everyone start working on reparing the Groundbridge. How long do we have exactly, Silas?"  
"Fourty-seven minutes approx. Is it enough?"  
Megatron frowned.  
"It'll have to be."


	3. Pt 3

Thousands of miles away from both the Ally and where he was supposed to be, Starscream stood in the lee of a large rock at the edge of the lake the Groundbrige had dumped him in, water dripping off of him to spatter against the already soaked ground.   
Aside from the sporadic dripping, the only sound was a faint gust of wind whining against the cut of the drab pebble beach. 

It was too quiet.

This planet seemed to have problems with its noise levels, because it was either too quiet and too empty or it was too loud and too crowded. Two extremes that just barely seemed to keep each other in balance.  
He tapped thoughtfully on his comm. It wouldn't do to bother anyone back on the Ally as they were all scrambling to make repairs, but technically he wasn't out there alone.  
He leaned against the rock and turned the comm on.

"Doctor? You there?"  
"Depends on your definition of "there"," Knockout's voice crackled back "But if you mean the exact oppisite of where I was supposed to be then yes, I am definitly there."

Starscream smiled. The doctor could alwayd be depended upon to have a smart remark, no matter the situation, or at the very least a snippet of sarcasim to let loose. It was, Starscream thought, one of his better qualities.

"Do you have your coords yet? We can't be too far away from each other."  
"First off, do you know how big Canada is? And secondly, no I do not have my coords because when the Groundbridge spit me out I went headfirst over a small cliff and damaged just about every device I had on me."

"Are you okay?" Starscresm tried not to laugh at his companion's predicament, but it was just about as utterly ridiculous as his own rough landing.  
"I'm fine. I have pine needles stuck all over though. I hate trees."  
Starscream started to reply, but something caused him to pause.  
A dry snap, barely audible, but nonetheless it disturbed the all encompassing stillness.

"Starscream? Everything alright?"  
"I'm not sure..." he peered across the flat shore, up to the rim of earth where the trees began to rise up, creating a jagged horizon, but nothing moved.  
"Ehh, it was no-"  
Suddenly the line went dead in a burst of static.  
"Knockout? Doctor can you hear me?"  
"Aww, has the little birdie lost its friend?" a mocking voice crooned from above him.  
Starscream looked up and felt his spark go cold as scornful red eyes set in a black face laughed down at him.

\----

Soundwave had the coordinates locked in and his fingers played across the consol controls, listening anxiously to the sounds of the others frantically working to repair the Groundbridge.  
He was itching to be in there, with them, trying to work out the problem.

But his task was to stand there and moniter the screen.  
He forced his attention back to the screen. Aside from the coordinates, the layout of the house they where trying to reach showed in the corner, along with multiple human life signals and their location within the house.

"Try it again."

Megatrons' order was followed by a disappointing electrical whine. A green light flickered at the center for a second, followed by a series of sparks bursting from the frame.  
Everyone paused, waiting for the sparking to stop.

"Maybe we should-"

The suggestion was cut off by the piercing blare of an alarm and the screen at Soundwave's station began to flash red.  
"Incoming missiles!" He shouted, muting the alarms, but the screen continued to flash "Seven minutes until impact!"

"Seven!? But according to Silas we should still have fifteen!" Dreadwing paused with a scowl "Why can't humans ever get anything right??"  
"I'll tell you when we fix the Groundbridge that hasn't worked for three years," Megatron growled "Let's try pulling that wiring out and just directly connecting the power with the intake regulator."  
"Won't that overcharge it and make it blow up?"

"Maybe," Megatron was already ripping the wiring out amidst a shower of white electricity "Or maybe it'll be enough to jump start it for one bridge, which is all we have time for. Dreadwing, try it again."

Dreadwing reached for the Groundbridge switch, but before he could pull it, the floor tilted sideways, throwing Megatron, Dreadwing, and several Vehicons down the hall.  
Soundwave latched onto the side of his consul and dangled from it as he tried to acsess the navigational system.

"Sounwaaave!??"

"Sorry sir! A rogue weather front moved in and the autocontrol can't handle the contrasting wind currents!"  
There was an agonizing screech of metal as the Ally tilted in the opposite direction and the cons went sliding down the other direction. 

"Can't you put it back on manual control and straighten us out?" Megatron managed to snag the corner of the Groundbridge frame and used it to steady himself.  
"I'm trying, I'm-" he broke off as he realized the time until the missiles hit was quickly dwindling away to mere seconds "We don't have time!"  
"Just turn the Groundbridge on! We'll fix this later!"

Soundwave powered up the Bridge just as the time hit ten seconds, the coordinates locked for the yard of the house.  
Megatron lunged for the portal, but the Ally tilted again, throwing him off balance and he went headlong down the corridor.  
Soundwave hesitated, one hand on the consul, one reaching out for Megatron, his eyes on the descending countdown.  
With a whoosh the Groundbridge opened in a blaze of green.

Five seconds.

"I'm going through!"  
"Soundwave no there's not enough time!"

Soundwave disappeared through the Groundbridge as the timer hit zero


	4. Pt.4

A blinding light and searing heat, debris smattering against his mask. It was like being exposed to the full force of an exploding star. His sensors went mad, choking on the ash. 

For a second a life signal flashed on the edge of his mask and he reached towards it, but met with resistance. A crumbling, burning wall, but still he couldn't get around it.  
He slipped his hand down, searching for an opening, and he found one, a broken window, but it was at an angle he couldn't force his arm through.

Desperation clouded his mind as the lifesign flickered again, then went out. The human was out of time.  
Steeling himself, Soundwave, extended a feeler and smashed it through the remainder of the glass, hissing in pain as jagged shards and burning splinters ripped into his skin.  
But he kept reaching, until he sensed the lifesign beneath the tip of his feeler.

"Soundwave! Soundwave do you read?" Megatron shouted into the comms "Answer me Soundwave!  
The Groundbridge warbled as the ash coated figure staggered into the Alley's corridor, arms clutched to his chest.  
He sank to his knees as the Groundbridge closed with a gasp. 

Megatron managed to make it to his side, despite the pitching of the ship.  
"Soundwave, are you okay?"  
Slowly Soundwave tilted his facemask up and though he couldn't see his face, Megatronus could feel the despair rolling off of Soundwave.  
"I could only save one," he gasped out, unfolding his fingers to reveal a bundle of charred cloth "And I don't think he's going to make it, Megatron."

\----

Starscream jumped away from the rock just as Arcee plumetted to the ground, missiles trained on her.

She landed soundlessly and leaned casually against the rock, eyebrows arched.  
"Now, what's a little seeker doing all the way out here on its lonesome? Not lost are you?"  
"I could ask the same thing of you, Arcee," he said coldly, still backing away. A few more feet and he'd have enough room to transform.

"Aww, who said I came alone?" She crooned, eyebrows arching in amusement.  
Starscream's eyes went wide and he spun around, drawing out his swords, blocking the attack from Cliffjumper as the neon green Autobot drove his own blade down towards the Decepticon's head.

Starscream had barely enough time to turn back around to deflect a blaster shot from Arcee and then it was a whirlwind of metal and Energon as Starscream defended himself from both sides, growing increasingly more and more frantic as they closed in on him. 

In a particularly viscious volley of blows, Arcee managed to slice open the back of his leg, causing him to shout in pain as Energon gushed to the ground.

"You're mine now, seeker," she hissed in delight.

He spat in disgust as he staggered backwards. His foot caught in the shifting pebbles and off-balance from the wound, Starscream fell backwards...  
And hit the deck of the Ally with a resounding clang.

"Starscream are you alright?"   
He heard Megatrons' voice as he saw the Groundbridge close above him.

"Starscream what happened? You're leaking!" Megatronus pulled his second in command up.  
"Autobots," Starscream gasped "Where's the doctor?"

"He's in the medical bay, we bridged him back first. Come on, let's get you there."  
\----  
"Oh Starscream not you too," they were met with a groan from the slate gray medic as they enetered the medical bay.

"What are you talking about?" Starscream's eyes swept the room "What happened to Soundwave and Laserbeak? And what is THAT?"

He pointed at a scrap of burnt fabric laying on the medical table next to Knockout.

"It's a human. Or, at least, it was," Knockout shook his head "I'm not sure for how much longer though."  
"No word from MECH?"  
"Communications are down," Knockout gestured towards Soundwave "Will be for a couple hours until the ash clears from his systems." 

He set down his medical scanner and gestured for Megatron to set Starscream down on of the tables.

"Sir, I can repair Commander Starscream, so that you can continue monitoring the human," a Vehicon designated 8-17329 offered quietly, medical tools already in hand.  
"Thanks 8," Knockout nodded and turned back to the struggling human.

"Is there anything you can do at all?" Megatron helped Starscream to the operating table, then joined Knockout.

"I don't know, I'm trying," The doctor sighed heavily "I know I've helped several MECH agents, but this is beyond that and the instruments I've recalibrated to heal humans just aren't cutting it."  
"Do what you can," Megatron patted his shoulder lightly.

"It still may not be enough," Knockout turned and held out his scanner as if he expected someone to take it, then let it drop.

He and Megatron stared at it lying on the ground for several seconds in mutual surprise.  
"Where's Breakdown?" Knockout asked finally.

"He's stuck in storage unit 7 again," 8-17 said as he finished the repair on Starscream's leg.  
"What? Seriously? Idiot," Knockout muttered the last part to himself "Could someone get him out? It'd be easier if he was here to help me."

"I'll see to it," Starscream said, standing up with 8-17's help "Unit 7?"  
"Yes sir."

"I'll come," Megatron passed a hand over his forehead "That door's really stuck. Knockout, when Soundwave's functional again have him contact MECH, ask them what they want us to do with him, at the very least give him a descent burial if it comes to it."  
"Alright, I will."  
\----

"How did one scrappy seeker manage to do this to both of you?"

Cliffjumper shrugged, watching from the wall as Ratchet fussed over Arcee "It was STARSCREAM, he's not second in command of the 'cons for nothing."

"And you're two of Lord Optimus' elite warriors," Ratchet retailiated "Which means you should be good enough to come back from a mission in at least one piece."

There was a burst of rough laughter from the door and Bulkhead came lumbering in, red optics dancing in malevolent amusement.

"Losing your edge, Arcee?" The beige 'bot asked, setting down a box of supplies with a heavy clang.

With a snarl she shot from the medical table, the blades in her forearms extending as she lunged for Bulkhead's neck cables.  
A blur of red blocked her attack, swift hands wrapping around the inside of her elbow and wrenching her off-balance, but then steadied her as she lost her footing.  
"Let go of me," she spat as she regained her balance but the hands didn't release. Yellow optics looked at her in a silent calm question.

"I'm done, Bee, now let me go."  
The scout released her, but his hands hovered, ready to catch her if she decided to take a parting shot a Bulkhead.

"Alright, out. I'm done with your games," Ratchet growled "And no more fighting, I'm not patching anyone else up."

With rolling optics, the four 'bots pushed and shoved against one another as they exited. Bumblebee paused for half a second, glancing towards a shadow in one of the darker corners of the room then at the medic.

"Go on scout," Ratchet said, his voice a touch softer "You can't help."  
He nodded and followed the others out.

"Your warriors got their tailpipes handed to them today," Ratchet said to the seemingly empty room as he began to clean and put away his tools.

The shadow that Bumblebee had glanced at shifted and moved closer to the center of the floor. Cloudy violet eyes rimmed with white regarded the boxy black medic, from the top of his helm, following the green and orange stripes down to his feet.

"I didn't send them out to fight," a tired voice rasped out slowly, the depth of the tone seeming to integrate with the very base of the darkness "Do not judge their failure on a task I did not set them to."

"Fair enough," Ratchet shook his head "Though, they barely succeeded on the job you did have them do."  
"Win or lose, Ratchet, either they did or they did not."

"Well, they did," Ratchet held up a tiny fragment of pulsating purple crystal "But I don't know if it's enough, Optimus."  
The Prime came closer to Ratchet, the effort obvious as the purple frame shook under its own weight and the heavy black hands bracing against the medical table "It is."  
Ratchet sighed and curled his fingers around the shard of dark Energon, reducing it to a palmful of dust "If you're certain."

"I am."

Ratchet let the dust fall into a vial, then set it down as he measured out a portion of liquid and poured it into the vial. He stepped back as a dark cloud rose up, the result of the two substances mixing.  
He waited until a pale glow radiated from the vial before picking it up.  
"Your arm."

Optimus extended his arm while Ratchet loaded the vial into an injecter.  
There was no reaction from the Prime as Ratchet pressed the syringe into the crook of his arm. Ratchet watched as the liquid drained away, the he looked up, wincing as a light began snaking across the Prime's chest.

"I don't know Optimus," he ducked his head as the light grew brighter "Every time you use the Dark Energon to reknew your bond with the Matrix, it weakens the link. Eventually no amount of Dark Energon will be able keep it from rejecting you."

"You have little faith, my friend," Optimus laughed roughly, but his shoulders rolled back as pain jolted through his body.

"Optimus!"  
He gasped weakly, reeling, his feet shuffling as he tried to balance.  
"Optimus," Ratchet snagged his arm and pushed the crumbling Prime onto the medical table "If the Matrix rejects you, then it'll kill you when it expulses itself from your body."  
He paused, hoping that Optimus was listening to him "But if I remove it now-"  
"Stop, Ratchet!" Optimus snarled "Shut up you idiot medic, I will not be one of your little experiments!"

"I want to save your life! Not play with it!"  
Optimus stood up, sweeping his arm out and throwing Ratchet against the wall with a resounding clang.  
The medic sank to the ground, sobbing in pain.

"I am Prime, fool doctor, no one will take the Matrix from me."


	5. Pt.5

Soundwave hovered outside the medical bay, listening both to the faint sobs of the tiny human inside and to conversation between Megatron and Silas.

"I told him what happened, to his family and his father," the man sounded exhausted and Soundwave could see the defeat in the tilt of his shoulders, even as he looked up to meet Megatrons' gaze "But I haven't explained where he is... Megatron, I-I need..." he paused and swallowed with difficulty, then started over, Megatron waiting patiently. "There's nowhere safe for that poor kid. Nowhere on this entire continent. I know this is unbelievably forward for me to ask-"

" You want me to keep the child here." Silas nodded weakly. "We have nothing for a human. No food, water, or a place to keep him. This ship is far too large for him to move around freely."

Silas nodded again "I know that. But the kid's got no chance otherwise. Could you at least let him stay until he's healed? Until he can see again?"

Soundwave paused. The poor thing couldn't see?

"Alright Silas. We'll keep him here, at the very least until his eyes are healed." "Thank you," the man swallowed, then glanced over his shoulder "I should explain to him about...y'know, the alien thing."

Megatron nodded and held his hand out, Silas stepped into it and they disappeared.

"Soundwave why aren't you lying down? I told you to power down for at least a couple of hours." Soundwave startled and turned to find Knockout standing behind him, one hand on his hip, one holding a bundle of charred fabric.

"Are those the human's clothes?" Soundwave asked, brushing aside Knockout's question.

" Yes, but they were too damaged by the fire to be of any use. Silas procured more suitable ones, so I'm disposing of these."

"He doesn't want them?"

"They're hardly more than ash, Soundwave, I doubt he'll have any use for them." "Right, um, is it normal for human clothing to twitch like that?"

Knockout looked down at his palm and a look of disgust touched his face as he realized Soundwave was right; the clothes were twitching.

"No, that is not normal," with the tip of his finger, he carefully sifted through the bundle until he seperated out what looked like it had been a bag of some sort. With the confidence of the surgeon that he was, Knockout pulled apart the fibres, allowing an absolutly minute THING to come free without damaging it.

"It's a Minicon!" Soundwave nearly shouted as the tiny creature staggered in circles in Knockout's hand, shouting in a high-pitched nagging voice "You need to take that back to him right now!"

"It is not, humans don't have Minicons Soundwave."

"This one does and you have to take it back right now."

"No, Soundwave-"

"What's going on? What are you fighting about?" A voice rumbled questioningly and they turned in unison towards the orange 'con who'd just walked up. "Breakdown, how nice of you to join us, _finally_."

Breakdown shrugged, unbothered by his friend's barbed words "I got stuck."

"I KNOW you got stuck," Knockout shook his head "I've told you not to close that bay door, I've told you a thousand times."

"Breakdown, do humans have Minicons?" Soundwave had no patience for the friendly jibes.

"Uh, no, no they don't."

"Hmph, I told you."

"They do have pets though."

"Is this a pet?" Soundwave gestured at Knockout's hand and the doctor turned to give his friend a better look .

"Um, yeah, it's a dig- no a dog."

"So we should give it back?"

"Yeah, probably."

Knockout rolled his eyes slightly, but he stepped back into the medbay. Neither Silas nor Megatron was anywhere to be seen and the tiny human was quiet, curled up in a little ball.

"Is it dead?" Soundwave asked in a rasping whisper.

"No, it's just asleep," Knockout answered quietly as he extended his hand and tilted it, causing the dog to slide out of his hand and onto the table. It sniffed at the boy in apparent concern then whined and curled up against his back. "It won't attack him, right?"

"Does it look like it's going to attack him?" Breakdown laughed at his friend's paranoia.

"I don't know. But that thing couldn't survive the slightest trauma so if anything happens-"

Breakdown held up his hands and started to apologize, but he was cut short by a beep from the nearest consol.

"Yes Megatron?" Knockout asked, activating the comm link.

"Knockout? Would you and Breakdown please to report to the Groundbridge room. I want you to...well do what you can."

"Yes sir." "Oh, and is Soundwave there?"

"I'm here."

"Great. Go to the bridge and take the navigational controls. This weather front isn't going away and the Vehicons could use some help."

Soundwave paused as Knockout and Breakdown began to leave "Wait, is it a good idea to leave him all alone?"

Knockout glanced from the human to the door "I... I don't think he's going to go anywhere. I'll come check on him soon."

Soundwave hesitated still, watching the other two leave. He sighed and murmured something quietly to Laserbeak. She unhooked from his chest and landed on the table next to the boy with a quiet twitter. Now at least if he woke up, he wouldn't be alone.

\----

"What worries me is: what where the Autobots doing out there?" Starscream asked as he paced back and forth across the bridge, half watching as Soudwave and the three Vehicons grappled withe navigation system, half waiting for Megatron to give him an anwser.

"Tracking our movements perhaps? Or maybe they where already out there." "Both possibilites unnerving, one if they were following us it means they've gotten better at pinpointing our Groundbridges or two they're looking for something and that's never good."

"Option three: Starscream's being paranoid again," Soundwave suggested.

"He has a point," Megatron said "On both accounts. But what could they possibly be looking for? We've scanned that quadrant at least twice."

"Maybe we should scan it again."

"Wouldn't hurt."

"Soundwave-where'd he go?"

Soundwave had been paying attention to Megatrons' and Starscream's conversation right up until the point he felt a tug from Laserbeak. They'd pretty much cleared the weather front and the Vehicons seemed to have things under control, so Soundwave slipped away. He felt another tug, a bit more urgent this time, and quickened his pace.

Laserbeak watched in concern as the human sat up and yawned. He didn't stand, but the tiny thing...the dog, bounced up to its feet and started shouting again. "Carmine?" the human rasped quietly, reaching out until he caught ahold of its wiry fur and pulled it to his chest "Of course," his voice cracked "You were in my backpack girl." He whimpered and Laserbeak thought he might be crying, but couldn't tell because of the bandage swathed over his damaged eyes. She sent out a silent call to Soundwave, letting know him that the human had woken up. Or at least she thought she'd been silent. The little human went still, but his head turned towards her. "Hello? I...Is someone there?" Carmine whined and tried to wriggle out of his arms, but he kept ahold of her. "Hello?"

"Hello," Laserbeak replied quietly "I'm here."

"Who are you?" the boy's voice dropped to a whisper "Are you one of the aliens?" She chuckled a little bit "Yes. I am. I'm called Laserbeak."

"I'm Rafael," he sniffled, then held the dog up "This is Carmine." She smiled, though even if he had been able to see, he probably couldn't have been able to tell.

"She's very small."

"Yeah, she's a terrier, they're small," he stood up, shifting the dog so that he held her in the crook of one arm, the other hand reached out towards Laserbeak "Where are you?"

"I'm right next to you," she purred "but you should sit back down, you might fall." On shaky legs, Rafael sat back down and let Carmine go, but she curled up in his lap. "Are you going to stay with me, Laserbeak?"

"For now Rafael."

He started stroking the dog's fur, then curled over her, crying quietly. She was a little bit startled, but reminded herself that his entire life had literally just gone up in smoke. She wished she was capable of comforting him. She pulled at Soundwave again. She could feel him nearing, when suddenly the Ally shuddered beneath her.

"What was that?" Rafael whispered.

"I don't know... Stay there," She unfolded her wings and zoomed over to the consul, reaching out her feelers and connecting with it.

"Wait. Please don't leave!"

"I'm not far," she soothed as she accessed the security feeds "And I'll be right back, I promise." She scanned through the frames and a flicker from the side of the screen signified that Soundwave was doing the same. She tried to dig back through a few minutes and went back further than she intended, to the minute when Starscream bridged back from the Artic. She was about to speed forwards again when she noted a silver and purple blur on the edges of the Groundbridge. Laserbeak didn't have a large spark, but she could feel it go cold and contract inside of her. She sped through the feeds, tracking the movements of the blur. "Soundwave!"

"I see him. Try to find his current location." She sped through the different angles and locations, finding nothing, she came to the corridor next to the Groundbridge and hesitated, for a fraction of a second her overactive anxious mind mistaking Breakdown and Knockout for what she was looking for. Then she looked behind them.


	6. Pt. 6

"Hey, Break, I left my Energon prod back at the Groundbridge, would you mind-" Knockout paused midsentence as he realized Breakdown wasn't behind him "Breakdown?" His comm crackled but no words came through. "Hello? Is someone trying to talk to me?"

There was another splutter of white noise, but no answer. Uneasily he hurried back the way he'd came, turning the corner in time to catch a glimpse of movement, but he didn't pursue it. Breakdown laying limp on the ground was far more concerning.

"Intruder..." Soundwave's voice crackled over Knockout's comm as the doctor knelt next to his friends "Knockout...confirm status."

0"kI'm fine. Breakdown's injured. I think the intruder's close."

"Pursue the intruder!" Megatron barked over the comms "Do not let him get to the Groundbridge!" Knockout hesitated for a fraction of a second, not wanting to leave Breakdown. But his friend was already beginning to wake up and there was an undeniable sense of urgency in Megatrons' order. He stood and sprinted down the corridor and he ran full tilt into the silver Autobot at the Groundbridge controls. Smokescreen shouted in surprise as Knockout tackled him to the ground, sending a memory card clattering to the ground.

"Cheater!" Knockout shouted in frustration as Smokescreen activated the phase shifter on his arm and slipped away from the doctor like a ghost.

"You can only cheat if the game has rules," Smokescreen dove for the memory card and dodged back to the controls.

"Spare me the flamboyant one-liners," Knockout snapped, turning one of his hands to a buzz saw and whipping it towards Smokescreen's face. Even though it phased through him, Smokescreen still closed his eyes and leaned backwards, giving Knockout a chance to yank the memory card from his hand.

"You... give that back!"

"Not on your spark, Autobot," Knockout ducked backwards, avoiding several blasts from Smokescreen's servo-turned-gun.

"No, not mine, but maybe yours," Smokescreen clawed for the key, ignoring all of Knockout's attempt to saw his face off. His fingers wrapped around it, but he had to phase back in order to yank it out of Knockout's fingers. He smashed his fist into the doctor's face, stunning him. Knockout collapsed against the wall, his grip going loose. Smokescreen laughed and darted towards the Groundbridge, key in hand. He entered the coordinates and cast a sneer towards the incapacitated medic. The Groundbridge came to life and he began to turn towards it,and immeadiatly Breakdown's hammer made conact with the center of his helm. As Smokescreen sank down unconscious to the ground, the orange 'con relieved him of the memory card.

"Knockout are you alright?"

Knockout groaned and staggered up to his feet, aided by Breakdown. He touched his face, feeling the long scratch Smokescreen had left. "I'm fine, I'm fine- he's getting away!"

On hands and knees Smokescreen pulled himself through the bridge and disappeared with a white flash.

"Where is he?" Starscream asked as he transformed and landed next to them. "Got away," Breakdown held up the memory card "but we got this from him." "What is it?"

\---

"The ENTIRE Iacon database?"

"No," Soundwave replied calmly to Megatrons' outburst "Just most of the Iacon database."

"Are you positive he didn't have anything else?"

"That's all I saw," Breakdown said, rubbing at the dent in his helm "Knockout?"

"I didn't see anything else."

"How did he even get onboard?" Dreadwing asked with a growl. Even though Smokescreen was gone, he was still gripping his sword in a tight fist.

"When Starscream bridged back," Soundwave answered "He slipped through then."

"I didn't even see him back at the lake," Starscream shivered

"But what about when the ship shuddered? Did anyone else feel that?" There was a general murmur of confirmation.

"When he started downloading the database it messed with the navigational controls, knocking us temporarily off course; the shiver was the Ally self-correcting herself."

"I'm sorry, is no one else not bothered that an Autobot snuck onboard and we didn't realize until he almost stole the entire Iacon database?" Dreadwing asked. "To be fair, we were a little bit distracted between keeping ourselves in the sky and the human," Q-T, one of the three Vehicons, pointed out.

"He was in the same room as Starscream AND Megtron! How'd they miss that?" "He also had the phase shifter."

"Still," Dreadwing crossed his arms "Not good."

"No, it's not, but he's gone now," Megatron sighed "Breakdown, Knockout, you two should get to the medical bay and get yourselves cleaned up."

"I'm fine," they said at once, then turned on each other.

"You are not fine."

"You should talk, you have a massive dent in the middle of your head." "You've got a big ol' scratch going down your face."

"Yeah. A _scratch_ , not the possibility of processer damage. Though, Primus knows there's probably not much up there to damage."

" _Hey_!"

"Just go, you two," Megtron shook his head. They left, bickering still.

"Oh, Megatron," Soundwave turned away from the consul "I want to check on the human."

"Knockout and Breakdown are literally going to medbay right now," Starscream pointed out.

"I know," despite the mask, it was clear Soundwave hadn't even looked at Starscream when he spoke.

"Alright Soundwave, you can check on him. When you're done check and make sure none of our other systems sustained any damage.

"Will do," Soundwave transformed and shot past them.

"He's always had a spark for those smaller than him, hasn't he?" Starscream asked, watching Soundwave disappear.

"Longer than I've known him," Megatron agreed.

\---

"Is everything alright, Laserbeak?"

She hummed quietly as she landed on the table next to Rafael "Everything's fine now. Nothing for you to worry about."

"Are you sure? What's...what's an Autobot?"

She paused, folding and unfolding her wings as she thought "How much did Silas tell you, about us?"

"Just...just that you were aliens and that you were big and that I had to stay with you for a while, because it safer here."

"Yeah..." She sighed. 'Safe' was entirely arbitrary. She knew that too well from experience. Though if Smokescreen had come across him, he probably wouldn't have looked twice at Rafael.

"How big are you?"

"What?"

"The guy...Silas...he said you were really big. Like, how big?"

"Oh," she hummed thoughtfully "Oh dear, well I'm not the largest of us. Um. I guess it's hard to give scale. I'm much larger than you, but at the same time, I'm small enough to attach to one of the others and..." she tried to think of a way to explain it so he'd understand "Ride around on them?"

"So... I'm small, you're big, but smaller than the others ones...that are bigger?" "Yes," she smiled to herself, pleased that he understood.

"I'm more confused than I was before. And I still don't know what an Autobot is." "It's, oh Primus help me, how do I explain this?" she groaned quietly. Fortunately she was spared as she heard an engine outside the door.

"What's that?"

"My deployer, he's the one who saved you." The doors slid open with a hiss and Soundwave entered quietly. "Is he awake?"

"He has been for a while," Laserbeak replied.

"Hi," Raf croaked, much quieter.

"Hello," Soundwave all but whispered back as he stepped closer to the table "I'm Soundwave."

"I'm Rafael...L-Laserbeak said you saved me. I should thank you."

Considering the boy's physical state and the fact that he was the only one left, Soundwave wouldn't say he deserved any form of thanks. "I...I did what I could," Soundwave bit the words out regretfully "I'm sorry that...I could only save you." Rafael didn't answer and he hugged his Minico- his dog, tightly. The uncomfortable pause between them was cut short as the doors opened again and Knockout and Breakdown entered, still bickering.

"Alright," Knockout said "That's it. You're going first, sit down."

"Who's that?" Rafael squeaked, hugging Carmine so hard she whined. "Knockout and Breakdown. Our doctor and his assistant." "Knockout...Breakdown...Soundwave... you have strange names."

"Well, I think Rafael is odd." He smiled a tad bit "You can call me Raf, if you like." "Is he awake?" Knockout asked, pausing in tending Breakdown "Good. I was getting worried. Ahh... Does he require sustenance?"

"What?"

"He's asking if you need food or water," Breakdown explained.

"Oh. I'm thirsty."

"So...Yes?"

"Yes."

"Great, Soundwave there should be a box somewhere with supplies," Knockout went back to patching up Breakdown.

"Ah, right," Soundwave stood as Laserbeak twittered in amusement "Where, exactly?"

Knockout gestured vaguely and Soundwave moved towards it, his posture making it veeeery clear that he was rolling his optics beneath the mask.

"Is water the solid or the liquid stuff?"

"Liquid."

"Right," Soundwave used a feeler to pluck the tiny bottle out of the crate "Okay. Here." Blindly Raf reached out and took the water bottle with trembling bandaged fingers. Soundwave watched as he struggled trying to twist open the cap. Raf gave up and locked his teeth around the cap and broke the seal with a crack, then worked it off the rest of the way with his fingers and then tilted the bottle up to his mouth. Soundwave watched as the clear liquid disappeared in several seconds.

"Do you need more?"

"N-no, I'm okay," Raf rubbed gingerly at the bandage over his eyes "I...I think I'm going to lie down again."

"Good idea," Knockout said softly and gestured for the other two 'cons to follow him out of the med bay "We're going to have to figure out somewhere else to keep him. I'll need to use that table eventually."

"What about one of the empty storage bays?" Breakdown suggested. "The problem being someone has to keep watching him all the time, since he's blind." "Laserbeak can do it," Soundwave volunteered.

"That could work. I'll ask Starscream and we'll try to set something up."


	7. Pt 7

It was several hours later when Knockout returned to the medical bay. Laserbeak was still there, but on one of the workbenches, not the table. Raf wasn't lying down either, he was sitting up and looked like he was staring off into the distance, if it wasn't for the bandage. Knockout cleared his throat quietly "Rafael?"

The little boy didn't move, but he answered quietly "Doctor?"

"We've made up somewhere that's a bit more comfortable for you."

"Oh...Okay... How am I going to-?"

Knockout reached out his hand and carefully scooped up Raf and Carmine.

"I'll carry you."

"Woah, woah, am I...is this...your hand?" "Mm-hmm."

"I...wow...I mean I knew, but you're bigger than I thought."

"Actually Knockout's kinda short," Breakdown said, coming up alongside them. "Yes and Breakdown's kinda ugly."

"Hey!"

Raf giggled but his laughter quickly turned to a violent cough and Knockout stopped walking until he'd managed to catch his breath again.

"Are you alright? Do you want me to get you some more water."

"No, I...I'm okay," Raf's fingers dug against Knockou't palm as he tried to steady himself

"I'm okay." Knockout looked down at him, concerned, then at Breakdown, who could only shrug.

"You're sure?"

"Y-yeah." Knockout sighed and started moving again.

\---

"So...it's not...much..." Knockout set him down and Raf sat, but reached out, feeling around him.

"It's a box, Knocks," Breakdown said.

"Yes, but it's a large box. Oh, and if you need anything, Laserbeak will be here." She twittered quietly and landed on top of the crate. Raf tilted his head, following the sound

"But, don't you need to be with Soundwave?"

"We agreed I should be helping you."

"...Thank you," he turned his head towards where he thought Knockout and Breakdown where "Thank you."

\---

"Ah, Smokescreen, you've returned. From your unsanctioned mission. I hope you have something to show for your efforts."

Smokescreen shot a lazy smile at Wheeljack "Do I ever come back empty-handed?"

"Yes," the blue Autobot commander replied "Often."

"Well not this time," Smokescreen rolled his optics "This time I've returned victorious."

"Oh really? Well unless you've got Megatron's head in your subspace I doubt it'll impress Optimus."

"Well, not quite so glorious," Smokescreen pulled off the phase shifter and set it down, revealing a small memory card that he'd slipped between his armor and the shifter "But I did download a part of the Iacon database."

"What?"

Smokescreen flicked the card beneath Wheeljack's chin "Iacon database Wheels. As much as I could before they came for me."

Smokescreen omitted the fact that he'd downloaded nearly the entire database on the other card before it came up with a full memory and had to switch to another card. And that he'd lost that card. Hey, what was in the past was past.

Wheeljack snagged the card out of Smokescreen's hand "We have to give this to Prime right away."

"Well duh," Smokescreen danced past him, reclaiming the key with a dramatic slide "What do you think I was going to do?" He walked backwards, grinning at Wheeljack, and his heel caught against the frame of the door. The card flew out of his hand as he wildly tried to regain his balance.

"Smokescreen!" Wheeljack dove for the card but another pair of servos had snatched it out of the air.

"Thank you Bumblebee," Wheeljack took the card as the scout offered it to him "Smokescreen, I will give this to Optimus Prime, YOU can go scrub the Energon processers."

"But, but, awww," he stormed away with a growl, purposely shoving into Bee, who gave him a scowl of reproach. "Oh, sorry," Smokescreen held his arms out wide "Is someone there?" He tilted his head as if listening "No? Oh, must've just been our resident ghost."

\----

It had been hours since the explosion, but smoke still rose from the carcass of the house, ash drenched firemen still patrolled through the wreckage alert for any signs of the fires restarting, but only now did people dare to come and start staring. Sierra was one of the first ones there, her curiosity overcoming her and her bicycle carrying her far faster than her sister. She cruised slowly down the opposite side of the street, until she wobbled to a stop and put her feet down on the ground so she could just stare.

"What happened?" her fair-haired sister squeaked as she caught up.

"They said it was a gas leak."

Sierra turned to find a boy about her age standing on the edge of the sidewalk, his own eyes staring across the street at the house. Usually she wouldn't have believed a word that came out of Vince's mouth, but the look of utter shock on his face convinced her that this time, he wasn't joking.

"Did...did they all die?"

Vince nodded.

"Oh!" Sierra's sister squeaked and for a second Sierra thought she was going to throw up.

"I heard someone say they died instantly. Incinerated the second the gas lit," Jackson Darby broke in on the conversation as he walked up.

"Oh, ugh, Sierra, let's go home. Please." Sierra ignored her sister's plea and turned her attention on Jackson.

"Who'd you hear say that?" He shrugged "Someone at the diner." "That's...horrible..." Vince said quietly. Jackson shrugged. Sierra resisted the urge to lean down and slap him. Neither he nor Vince were the kindest or most sensitive of people, but Jackson seemed fairly unbothered while Vince was as shocked as she was.

"Sierra, please." Sierra sighed and pressed down on her bike pedals, shooting past the boys, her hair flying behind her.

"Was it anyone we knew?" Jackson asked after watching Sierra and her sister disappear.

"Raf. Remember him?"

"Mm..." "Little Hispanic kid, glasses, he jumped ahead a grade."

"Oh yeah. He was kinda annoying." Vince just shook his head and walked off, hands shoved into his pockets. Jackson stared for a few more minutes, until his phone buzzed. He answered it as he began to leave.


	8. Pt 8

"How much longer? You said it would be soon, how soon?"  
Knockout sighed at Rafael's pestering "When I said 'soon' I meant a week or two, not a day or so."

  
"Aww," the little boy's shoulders slumped "Are you sure?"  
"I'm sure."

  
The boy went quiet for a few minutes and Knockout went back to his work.  
It had been nearly a month since Raf had joined them and it had been a rough transition. Humans were difficult to care for, Knockout discovered, especially young, injured, grieving ones.

  
Most alarming was his shift in mass. Apparently if humans' bodies didn't have acsess to a variety of nutrients they literally shrank and there was so little to Raf in the in first place neither Knockout or Soundwave had noticed it. It had been 8-17 who'd mentioned off-handedly that he thought the human felt lighter when he picked him up.

  
At first Knockout thought that the Vehicon was crazy, but on second thought humans were unbeleivably unpredictable and after several hours scouring the Internet, the doctor realized that a diet of instant oatmeal, granola bars, and beef jerky was hardly healhy. There were other things as well, but that seemed the easiest one to fix. That was, until they found out that humans don't actually _want_ to eat what's healthy, or at least Raf didn't. That was a fight none of them expected.

  
Eventually Raf gave in and ate the vegtables, after hours and hours of Soundwave coaxing.

  
"Can I go back to my room now?"  
"Oh, ah, in a minute, I have to finish up with my work."  
"Can't Soundwave take me?"  
"He's busy."

  
"What about Breakdown?"  
"He's busy too."  
"Doing what?"  
"Helping Silas."  
"Helping Silas do what?"

  
"Raf. Just wait a few minutes and I'll take you back alright?"

  
That was something Rafael didn't need to know about.  
\----  
"How do you quarantine an entire state?"  
"How does an entire state get sick?"

  
Sierra listened to the conversations around her in the cafeteria, her eyes half closed as she picked at the mess of food on her tray.

  
"I heard they started shooting people who tried to cross from California to other states."  
"That's ridiculous."

  
There was really only one topic that was going around though.  
"Did you hear that there's some thug group stealing the medicine and selling it?"  
"I heard that they were stealing it and giving it to the sick people."  
"Why would they do that when they could make a fortune."

  
"How would they even...that?"  
"Don't...maybe?"  
"Oh...kidding..."

  
Sierra's head snapped up as the noise around her faded to little more than a distant white noise crackle.  
Her eyes met with her sister's and she stood up quickly, gesturing for Cas to follow her out of the room.

  
"Sierra what's-"

  
Cas was cut off as Sierra pulled her into the bathroom and then into one of the stalls.

  
"The batteries in my hearing aids died."  
Cas stared at her for a second before signing back "You don't have extras?"  
"No!"  
"What do I do?"  
"Call Mom. She'll know what to do."

  
Cas nodded and hurried off. She was back several minutes later.  
"I called her," she signed "She'll be here soon. Let's go to the parking lot, okay?"  
Sierra nodded and Cas led her out of the bathrooms into the crowded halls.  
It was a struggle to keep from crying, as she imagined every eye on her.

  
"Hey Sierra I'm talking to you!"  
"Leave us along, Darby," Cas growled.

  
"Are you listening to music?" Jackson continued trying to get Sierra's attention "You know Ipods aren't allowed!"

  
He reached out and yanked what he thought were headphones out of Sierra's ears. She squealed in surprise and jumped, leaving her hearing aids in Jackson's hand.

  
"Give those back!" Cas shouted, trying to snatch the hearing aids from him, but he stepped backwards and dangled them over her head.  
"Oh? Does your big sister need you to protect her? Can't she get her own headphones back?"

  
"Jackson give it back! We have a family emergency and we need to go!"  
"Then go then, you don't need your headphones to have an emergency, do you Si-Si?"

  
Shivering hard, Sierra held her hand out and gave him the darkest scowl she could manage "Give...it...back...Jack."  
"Aw, does she want her music back?"  
"What is going on here?"

  
Cas and Jackson jumped as one of the teachers walked up. Sierra didn't hear the teacher, but something in the pit of her stomach twisted as she saw the look on her sister's face.  
\----

  
When Sierra finally got out of the principle's office, her eyes were dry, but only because she didn't have any tears left to cry. She had her hearing aids back but the batteries were still dead and she pretended like she couldn't see her mother or sister trying to sign to her.

  
In the car she slid into the back seat and pressed her forehead against the window, closing her eyes and blocking out everything.

  
"This is bad, isn't it?" Cas asked quietly as she got into the front seat, glancing at her sister worriedly.

  
"Yes," her mom said softly as she started the car "Yes it is Cas."  
"They're going to take her, aren't they?"  
"Cas-"

  
"Stupid government with stupid people and stupid rules," Cas burst out "Stupid Jackson Darby and stupid hearing aids!"  
"Cas!" her mom exclaimed then cut herself off and started over much more calmly "Cas, you can't say those things."

  
"But it's not fair! It's not Sierra's fault she can't hear. They shouldn't be allowed to take her."  
"No, Cas, they shouldn't."

  
"So what are we going to do?" Cas asked after a few minutes of swallowing down her emotions.  
"Cas, you aren't going to do anything, okay? You need to keep to yourself as much as possible, alright?"  
"But-"

  
"No, Cas. You can't do anything. Please, understand this, okay?"  
Cas sniffled and crossed her arms over her chest "Stupid Genetics whatever law."  
"Genetics Prevention and Future Purity accords. Cas, please."  
"Alright. I'll be quiet," Cas bit the inside of her lip hard, until she tasted blood.


	9. Chapter 9

At the Autobot base a message pinged on the consul and Optimus Prime answered it.

"General Fowler," he greeted with a rumble "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I want to ask a favor," General William Fowler replied bluntly "I want one of your bots on a mission."

"And why would you want that?"

"Because I suspect MECH may attempt to intefere."

"You cannot deal with members of your own species?"

"Not when they have Deception allies."

Optimus smiled faintly "So, Breakdown's been causing trouble for you again? Well, I do believe that Bulkhead would be more than happy to help you with that." "He's helped before," General Fowler pinched the bridge of his nose "He was less than effective."

"I'll send Cliffjumper with him," Optimus shrugged heavily "But I doubt Bulkhead will want to miss an opportunity to dent Breakdown."

"Fine. But have them meet me soon." "Of course, General."

\----

"Everything's fuzzy," Raf squinted upwards at the hazy faces surrounding him "But I can see."

"Try blinking a few times, your eyes should adjust." Raf did as Knockout suggested, but shook his head "Where are my glasses?"

"...Your what."

"My glasses, I need them to see."

Soundwave turned his masked face towards Knockout "You threw his clothes away, didn't you?"

"I need my glasses!"

"No I didn't, because of Carmine," Knockout yanked open a drawer and pulled out a charred lump

"I put it in here and never got around to getting rid of it... Is this it?" he sifted out a tiny object and between two finger tips held it out to Raf.

"Yeah," he put it over his nose and squinted again.

"Is it okay?" He pulled it off, breathed on the lenses, rubbed them on his sleeve, then put it back on and looked up at them. "Hi."

Sounwave chuckled and waved down at him "Hi Raf."

"It's weird, finally seeing you, after only just hearing you," Raf blinked "Somehow I didn't imagine you as red and yellow."

"Oh, what'd you think?"

"Black or purple maybe?

" Raf turned and smiled at Knockout "Hi Doctor K."

"Hello Raf. What did you think I would be?"

"Red."

"Red?"

"Dunno, you just sounded red."

"I _sounded red,_ " Knockout rolled his eyes "Okay."

Raf giggled, then turned back to Soundwave and reached towards him "Can I see the rest of the Ally? I really want to see the ship."

"I don't see why not," Soundwave held his hand and Raf scooped Carmine up in his arms and stepped into Soundwave's palm.

"I see why not," Knockout crossed his arms "I think you ought to lay down for bit, I don't want you to get a headache."

"Aww but-" Raf was cut off by a hailing on the comm and Knockout stepped aside to answer it. Raf looked up as Soundwave tilted his head down, a grinning emote flashed over Soundwave's mask and Raf's face lit up like a Christmas Tree.

"Yeah, Breakdown, I'll be right there..."

Soundwave slipped past the distracted doctor and made a dash down the hall. "Right, where should we go first?"

"The bridge," Raf said without a heartbeat of hesitation "Please?" "Yeah of course, it'll be faster if we fly," Soundwave set Raf down and transformed "Hop in."

"Ohhh, this is so cool! You're a jet!"

"Yeah, I thought I mentioned that."

"No," Raf shook his head and climbed inside "You didn't." The seat inside Soundwave reclined way back, so that Raf was almost lying down when he sat in it.

"Wow, it's kinda dark," Raf said as Soundwave closed his door "I thought you'd have a window or something."

"Just...wait." Carmine yipped in surprise as Soundwave took off, his engines whining. "Now watch this."

Raf gasped in surprise as suddenly Soundwave seemed to turn transparent and he could see through to the corridors as they sped down it. "Wh- How?!" "Computer screens, so I can see what's going on all around me at all times."

Raf looked down at his feet and felt his nerves tingle as he watched the ground race past him. "Hey, do a barrel roll."

"Okay." Raf whooped as Soundwave obliged, his heart leaping into his throat then dropping to his toes. "You're so fast!"

"Oh, I'm not even going full speed."

"Oh! Oh! Go faster, go faster!"

\----

The three Vehicons and two Eradicons turned as Soudwave blasted onto bridge. He transformed and landed lightly on his feet with a very surprised Raf in his arms.

"That...was so cool!" Raf pushed his glasses further up his nose then stared around him at the room full of electronics and flickering panels

"Oh, wow..." "Is that Raf?"

"Hello Raf!

" "You can see us now, can't you, Rafy?"

Raf grinned and waved at the Vehicons "Hi guys... hey... um, which is which? Why do you all look alike? Well almost all alike."

One of them, Q-T shrugged "That's kinda just how it is. Vehicons look like this and Eradicons look like that."

"But like...why don't you have different paint colors?"

A Vehicon designated X-89 turned to Q-T "Why don't we have different paint colors?" Q-T turned to Soundwave, his head tilted.

Soundwave shrugged "I don't know."

"What is going on in here? Oh, oh, hello Rafael." Raf hunkered a bit back as he tilted his head up to meet Megatron's gaze.

"H...hi," he managed to squeak out "Sir." Despite having lived on the Ally for the past month, Raf had really only spent his time with Soundwave and Laserbeak, with a few trips to the medical bay with Knockout and Breakdown. The Vehicons had been allowed to watch him a couple of times, but that had been disallowed once X-89 picked him up without his permission and wouldn't put him down. The two seeker Eradicons didn't have much interest in baby-sitting. So Megatron's presence was both overwhelmingly intimidating and foreign.

"You may call me Megatron, if I may call you Raf," Megatron smiled.

"O-okay," Raf tried to return the smile, feeling a tad more at ease.

"I'm just showing him around the ship, now that he can actually see it."

"Not a bad idea, considering he could be here for a while yet," Megatron paused then looked down at the Vehicons "I'm sorry, but you need to return to your work stations."

"Oh, yes sir."

"Of course sir."

"Right away sir." They scurried off.

"Oh, I want to show him the Groundbridge controls."

Raf was still staring around the bridge, fascinated by the panels and lights "What's a Groundbridge?"

"Haven't you told him about Groundbridges?"

"I guess not." Megatron got the sense Soundwave was grinning. "But now's better than any other time."

"But what is a Groundbridge?"

"I'll show you." Megatron followed after them as Soundwave darted off the bridge.

\---

"So you can teleport anywhere with this thing?"

"Well, in theory. The energy fields keep us from bridging outside of the continent, but anywhere inside of them we can get to."

"Most of the time," Megatron amended Soundwave's statement "It doesn't always behave itself."

"What do you mean?" Raf asked, looking up at him. "I mean, sometimes, when you want to go to one place, it takes you to another, or it just won't turn on at all."

"Oh," Raf looked back at the circular frame "So I could go anywhere in the country? Like...somewhere with snow?"

"Yeah, definitely," Soundwave nodded.

"I've always wanted to see snow," Raf said, mostly to himself, as he investigated the corner of the frame, eyes wide. Soundwave looked up at Megatron. "Soundwave I don't think that's a good idea," he said softly. "Just for a little bit? "The cold isn't safe for humans."

"We can put something warm on him. Please, it's been ages since I've been off the ship for fun."

Megatron sighed "If-"

"Yes!"

"If you dress him warmly and if you take him somewhere isolated, understand?" "Yes!" "Yes what?" Raf turned back to them.

"Yes we're going to see some snow."

" _Really_?" Raf squealed, beaming "Really Megatron?"

"Yes, for a little bit," Megatron couldn't help but smile at the boy's enthusiasm "But you have to dress warmly, understand?"

"Okay, mm-hmm," Raf was grinning at Soundwave, who flashed the smiling emoji back at him.

"Alright, let me off this ride," Laserbeak detatched from Soundwave "I don't like cold and I don't like snow. Have fun and don't break the human Soundy."

"Hpmh, coward."

"You have half an hour, okay Soundwave? Then you have to come back. Half an hour. Thirty minutes. Understand?"

"Yes, I _know_ how long half an hour is thank you very much."

Megatron looked down at Raf "Make sure he remembers."

Raf's smile turned mischievous "I will."


	10. Pt 10

Sierra tried to ignore her father's raised voice, but she shuddered as he slammed the phone down.   
As he and her mother went into the kitchen, speaking with hushed tones. She already knew what they were saying.

  
She curled her knees up tighter against her chest and from her perch on the couch, peered out the window at the two cars that rolled up into the driveway.  
Did it really take two cars to spirit away one broken girl?

  
She sighed and set her shoulders, wondering if the rumors about children being dragged away to be used in unholy experiments were true, or if they'd just drive her to one of the salt flats and shoot her.

  
Guess she'd find out pretty soon.  
She stood up and smoothed down her skirt as a man dressed all in black marched up the walkway and pounded on the door.  
"Si-si?"

  
Sierra turned and gave her sister her brightest smile, reaching out to hug her.  
Cas burst out sobbing and turned and ran out of the room.  
Sierra swallowed hard, but kept her smile steady as her father answered the door.

  
He might've argued with the agent, her mother might've said something. But Sierra didn't really hear any of it. Her hearing aids were working just fine, but her mind didn't want to hear any of it.  
Somehow she ended up outside of her home, by the strange man's side. She glanced back once and through the haze of sudden tears, saw her parents' silhouette in the door.

  
She was pushed into the backseat of the smaller car; an eye-bleeding green vehicle with a set of devil's horns as a hood ornament.   
The seats were black leather and the seatbelt stuck as she tried to pull it over herself. It took several sharp tugs before it'd unroll.

  
She closed her eyes as they started moving. Brave as she looked, she couldn't stand to watch as Jasper rolled away around her, as her home sank beneath the horizon, like they said the sun used to do.  
\----  
Raf was quiet as they walked through the Groundbridge, the corridors of the Ally melting away in a whirl of energy, replaced by a snowladen forest.  
He let out a soft breath of awe as he slowly turned in a circle, head upturned as he stared around him.

  
"Wow..."  
"It's pretty isn't it? I think Earth has the nicest snow I've ever seen," Soundwave said, looking around with Raf "There's a bit of an overlook a little ways down there, if you want to go for a walk."

  
"You've come here before?" Raf asked as they started tromping through the heavy drifts, it came up almost to the boy's knees, but for the 'con, it was hardly more than a carpet of frost.

  
"Yes, a couple of times actually. We where tracking down an Energon signal a while back and I thought it was just a nice place so I've come back a few times, just to look."  
"Where are we again?"

  
"In Colorado. I like it here, it's very green."  
"I've never been here before. I've never been anywhere except Jasper, well aside from the Ally."

  
They came out from the trees into a clearing blanketed in pristine snow.  
"Over here," Soundwave pointed towards an outcropping of rocks "There's a drop and you can see the whole valley."

  
Raf scampered to the rocks and climbed up one, steam pouring out of his mouth as he panted from effort. Beneath him the mountain dropped away to a canopy of frost covered pines.

  
"It's amazing isn't it? There's nothing like this on Cybertron y'know. No snow, no trees, no mountains, or not like this anyway..."  
Soundwave trailed off, happy to admire the view. Raf slipped off the rock, his landing muffled and his hands dug into the snow, pulling up a clump and pressing it into a ball.  
"You okay, Raf? Not too cold-hey!"  
The snowball splattered on the edge of his mask and he wiped it away as Raf laughed.

  
"Gotcha!"

  
"Oh really?" with one of his tentacles he scooped up a pinch of snow and threw it lightly at the boy. Deliberate and careful as the action was, Raf still tumbled over, though he was laughing. He jumped back up again, another clump already packed between his hands and flung it, this one smattering against Soundwave's shoulder.

  
They where both laughing now as they pelted each other, Raf trying as hard as he could, Soundwave being as gentle as he could, though he did try to duck away from Raf's throws.

  
One volley ended with Raf on his back, panting and laughing so hard he couldn't stand back up.  
"Are you...are you alright?" Soundwave asked, after manaing to get control of his own laughter.  
"I'm fi-" Raf froze midsentence as he began to sit up, his eyes locked on something behind Soundwave.

  
Soundwave turned, tracing Raf's gaze back to the trees, his spark going cold as he saw Bumblebee's red frame starkly outlined by the trees.

  
\----  
When Sierra opened her eyes Jasper was long gone. Just the desert rolled away around them now.  
A voice crackled, as if it was coming over a radio, but Sierra couldn't make out the words.   
"You've got to be kidding me," the man hissed "How did you get a flat tire you idiot."

  
Sierra felt her heart jump as the man stepped out of the car and walked past her, towards the beige vehicle that had been following them.

  
Her eyes darted towards the left side of the road, a tumbled mess of boulders and stones on the rim of a canyon.  
....  
....  
....  
Her fingers found the seatbelt and unclipped it before her mind even registered what she was doing. Her hand hooked into the door handle and yanked it open and her feet were pounding against the pavment, then flying over the dusty ground.

  
She was going to die. They would probably shoot her. But that would be better than dying strapped to a table with needles and wires sticking out of her.  
She could hear shouting and swearing behind her and instinctivly she glanced backwards, her red hair flicking in her face.

  
The lime green car was already off the road, racing towards her.  
She made it past the first boulder. Now at least they couldn't turn her into roadkill.

  
She heard a sound past the beating of her own heart and her gasps for air, one that was utterly out of place in the desert. It was high-pitched and metallic, electric and whining, like metal being pulled and yanked against itself. It chilled her and she looked back again, her heart going as cold as a lump of charred black coal in her chest as she saw an impossible figure cut against the horizon. A creature, a man, a monster that rose up from where the green car had been and bounded after her on long legs.

  
Her heart started beating again and her blood felt like it had been set on fire as it began surging through her body again. She ran straight for the cliff, because if she was going to die, then she wasn't going to die by being stepped on like a bug.   
She could hear the crack and rumble of its footsteps but she could see the rim of the cliff.

  
"Nowhere left to run."

  
It spoke and the words chilled her fire blood, but it was wrong. It didn't think she'd jump? It didn't think she was brave enough?  
As Sierra's toes curled around the crumbling edge, Cliffjumper lunged for her, expecting her to stay still.

  
She jumped, arms spread out wide, her knees pulled up. Cliffjumper hurtled forwards, out into open empty air.  
And they both fell.


	11. Chapter 11

"Ally I need a Groundbridge!" Soundwave shouted into his comm as he reached out towards Raf "Ally!"

  
A shot from Bumblebee's blaster sent fizzling bits of snow flying into Soundwave's face and Raf scrambled away from the scorched patch of earth with a scream.

  
"Raf! Raf are you alright? Rafael!" Soundwave ducked beneath another shot from the red Autobot, as he frantically tried to pinpoint the boy's location "Raf!!"  
Bumblebee charged across the clearing just as Soundwave saw the brown of Raf's coat, sprawled out in the snow.

  
He lunged forwards, his fingers curling around Raf and flinging him to the side as Bumblebee collided with him.

  
Spark flashed and metal screeched as Bumblebee's fist smashed against Soundwave's chest, going straight for his spark. Soundwave pulled his arm back, bashing the scout on the back of his head.

Bumblebee slipped back, optics contracting for a second, giving Soundwave enough time to leap to his feet and his tentacles shot out, crackling with electricity as they clawed at Bumblebee's face.

Bumblebee shot at them, causing Soundwave to snarl in pain and retract them, instead jumping forwards, slashing with the razor edges of his arm. Bumblebee received a massive scratch across his shoulder and relented, his optics elsewhere.

Soundwave glanced off to the side and nearly screamed as he saw Raf lying still on his back, his glasses fallen off his face and in a dent of snow.

  
Bumblebee went for the boy, guns out and Soundwave threw himself in front of the unmoving human, taking the full brunt of Bumblebee's momentum, they both went down in the snow, grappling, clawing, shooting and zapping.

Soundwave arched his back and hoped that he hadn't landed on Raf. The thought distracted him for a split second. Bumbebee's blaster smashed into his visor, sending spider web cracks through the glass.  
\----  
Raf woke up, soaking wet and shivering, but not in the snow. He blinked a couple of times at the blurry world and realized he didn't have his glasses on.

Sitting up he felt around until he touched the familiar shape and picked it up and placed it securely on his nose.   
"You feeling alright?"

  
Raf started at the question and looked around, realizing he was in the back seat of an unfamiliar car.

  
"B...Breakdown?"  
"Yeah, it's me. You warm enough?"

  
"Where's Soundwave?" Raf scooted over to the door and tried to pull it open, but as he reached out the locked clicked down "Hey!"

  
"It's too cold for you. Soundwave's fine."

  
Raf realized he could hear voices and leaned up to the window, his breath fogging the glass. He wiped it clear with the edge of his sleeve and peered out.   
Soundwave, Megatron, and Knockout stood in the middle of the clearing. The once even and pure snow had been churned up and mixed with black earth and bare patches. Bumblebee was nowhere to be seen.

  
Raf had to focus to hear what they were saying, but from Knockout's tone of voice, it was clear he was not happy.

  
"What where you thinking Soundwave! You could've gotten him killed!"

  
Raf could see Soundwave hold up his hands defensively "I didn't know Bumblebee was here. I scanned twice and there wasn't any sign of anything."

  
"Bumblebee is well know for slipping under the radar! And anyways why would you take Raf off the Ally when I specifically ordered that he should rest?!"

  
"He was feeling fine and I wasn't going to have him out here long, Doctor. We were having fun until the Autobot showed up."  
"Having fun!? If Bumblebee didn't disintegrate him then he could've froze to death."

  
"We where only going to be out here for a little while."

  
"What if the Groundbridge went down!? Then what where you planning on doing?"

  
"Knockout," Megatron stopped the irate doctor before he could go on "That's enough. I had a hand in it as well. I gave them permission."  
"But...but...urgh," Knockout was obviously restraining himself from pouring out his opinions and anger on his leader "Fine. But you put me in charge of the human's wellbeing. I don't know how you expect me to do my job if you don't let me make these decisions!"

  
"Noted, Doctor, I understand."  
"Groundbridge prepped if you're ready to return," Dreadwing's heavy voice rumbled over the comms.

  
"Yes," Megatron replied "Open it."

  
"Sit down," Breakdown said as he started moving and his seatbelt clipped over Raf.

  
The Groundbridge whirled around them and Raf felt a bizarre buzzing in his teeth as Breakdown drove through it.

  
"I thought Starscream was manning the Groundbridge," Megatron asked as they came out into the corridor of the Ally.

  
Dreadwing shrugged "He was. But MECH called- another emergency or something- and since Breakdown was off with you, Starscream went instead."

  
"Why does MECH have so many emergencies?" Soundwave sighed as Laserbeak zipped around his head, admonishing him for scaring her so badly.

  
"I know right?" Breakdown said, transforming after letting Raf out "It's almost like they're trying to fight the injustices of a massive government on their own."  
Dreadwing rolled his eyes.

  
"Raf are you-?" Knockout started, but stopped as Raf ran past him and threw his arms as far as he could around Soundwave's foot.

  
"I...I'm fine, really Raf," Soundwave knelt down "I'm sorry. Come on you should probably go rest."

  
Raf sniffled and reached up towards Soundwave, who picked him up carefully and walked away down the corridor.

  
"Have you talked to Silas about what we're going to do with him?" Knockout asked quietly after Soundwave was out of earshot "He's practically back to full health and... and this isn't really the best place for a small human, or any human really."

  
"Yes and honestly I think Silas is as stumped as we are. Really, there isn't anywhere safe. For the foreseeable future Knockout, he's going to stay with us."  
"Megatron? Incoming call from Starscream."

  
"Alright Dreadwing, patch him through."


	12. Pt 12

Sierra felt her heart in her throat, her blood in her head as she watched the ground rising up. She wondered if they'd even bother to bury her. Or if there'd be so little of her left that it wouldn't be anything even to bury. Suddenly the ground wasn't there anymore.

She slammed to a stop, in too much pain to be really dead, her head whipped forwards and her nose cracked against a control panel and spurted blood everywhere.

"I have her!" a voice from somewhere, it seemed all around her, shouted and she heard engines roaring as she felt herself tilting to the side.

Airplane. She was in an airplane.

How?

She stared out of the cockpit as the green robot-man-monster hit the ground. A wave of flame rolled up from his broken frame and he disappeared in the smoke and sparks.

Panting, dizzy, her nose probably broke and still bleeding, Sierra fell against the window, half-conscious.

"Is she alright? Are you- are you alright?"

That voice was calling out to her. It sounded male, but smooth and kind, though worried.

"I don't think she's alright. I think she's bleeding."

Who where they talking to? Where were they? Why had they saved her?

"You...just hang on okay? Can you hold on for a few minutes? I promise I'm going to get you somewhere safe, okay? Okay? Please talk to me."

"Okay," she hacked out. She could taste copper in her mouth and realized she'd probably bitten her tongue when she hit the panel

"I...I...okay..."

She faded in and out of consciousness, in the few seconds of clarity still wondering where the speaker was.

A few minutes? Hours? Seconds? later she felt the aircraft descending, the rough jolt as it's landing gear hit the rough ragged ground and came to a quick but easy stop. The cockpit opened, apparently of its own accord.

"Can you get out by yourself or-"

Sierra didn't wait for him to finish or even to wonder why he wasn't getting out, she practically climbed over the edge and fell the couple of feet to the ground, landing on her stomach and elbows, the dirt clinging to the blood on her face. A heavy set of hands pulled her to her feet and steadied her.

"You alright kid?"

For a split second she thought it was the pilot, but she realized it couldn't be, his voice was far rougher than the other one, though still edged with kindness.

She blinked past the hazy of hornet-sting tears at the man and swallowed hard, trying to find words.

His face was scarred and stern, his hair white, but the look in his eyes reminded her of her father's, both caring and angry.

"She needs something for her nose," the man called, pretty much dragging her over to a rock and letting her collapse onto it.

"Who...who are you?" She coughed "What's going...on?"

"Questions later kid, let's get you cleaned up first," he held out a clean cloth to her and she carefully wiped away the blood. It had stopped gushing, but her face and shirt were dripping and her nose still ached, but not so badly as before, so hopefully it was not actually broken.

"Feeling okay?" The man asked after she'd cleaned up as much as she could. Not really sure of how else to answer, she nodded her head.

"If you've got questions then ask them now but ask them quick, we can't stay here a lot longer."

She pulled in a very long breath, then let all the air and all her questions out in a short force gasp. "Who are you, what's going on-" and then, the most pressing one "What was that thing- that monster- the car that wasn't a car that was a man but wasn't a man."

"I'm Silas," apparently he was going to go in order "We are MECH-"

"I've... I've heard about you, bad things about you."

"You heard those things from the same people who think you're defective and want to tear you away from your family?"

She nodded, wiping at the tears on her face. Had she been crying the whole time or had she just started?

"Listen, what's going on is your father contacted us and asked for our help. I'm going to try to get you somewhere safe." Silas stood up, as if that answered all her questions.

"Wait what about that...that thing? The car-man...thing. And where are you going to take me that's safe."

"Eh..." he hesitated and sighed "It's complicated kid."

"My name is Sierra and what was it? Are there more?"

"MECH is constantly on the run. It'll be rough for a while, but after everything calms down we might be able to find a small isolated town were you'll be able to start living again."

"You didn't answer my question. You obviously know something or you would've just told me you didn't."

"You're persistent for someone who almost just died."

"Why don't you just tell her?" it was the pilot's voice again and it sounded like he hadn't left his aircraft "She already saw Cliffjumper and if she's going to be with you she'll know soon anyway."

"Well, then you explain it, it'll make more sense that way," Silas shrugged.

"Oh dear..." the pilot sighed faintly. Sierra stepped closer to the jet, trying to peer back into the cockpit.

"What was that thing?" she asked, giving up after not seeing anyone "Where are you?" "

'That thing' was to put it most straightforwardly, an extraterrestrial."

"But it looked like a normal car?" "Yes, part of...our...biology is the capability to take on the shape of vehicles."

"So it's not just cars? The jet- I mean- you are an alien?"

"Yes."

"So you can shape-shift?"

"We call it transforming, but yes."

She stared at him, eyebrows raised "Well?"

"What? Oh, I see," he chuckled softly "Of course."

There was that sound again: metalic and eletric; and the aircraft rearrainged itself into a tall thin man, with gray skin and blue paint, missles on his arms and long swords across his back. The aircraft was still evident though, in the wings and fins against his back.

"Woah," the word escaped her lips without her even realizing.

He smiled and bowed courteously "Commander Starscream, at your service, Miss Sierra."

"Well, now that we've got all this sorted out, we should probably get going before we start getting shot at.

Sierra could barely tear her eyes off of Starscream to turn and reply to Silas. She could've stared blatantly for a lot longer. "Thank you," she managed finally and swallowed.

"Yes, thank you Starscream," Silas paused "You'll be alright getting back?"

"I'll be fine."

"Sir!" A MECH agent wearing a mask ran up, waving a small electronic device "Sir, something's popped up on the radar and it's moving towards us rapidly."

"Alright, everyone move out-" Silas was cut off by the obnoxiously loud roaring of an engine up on the edge of one the hills around them. Everyone turned to look up. Sierra recognized the beige vehicle that had been right behind them when she was riding in the green car- the alien.

"He has long range weapons!" Starscream shouted as the car transformed into another massive metal being.

Sierra barely had time to process the Commander's warning before dust exploded around her and she felt the heat of the blast. She registered her feet leaving the ground and the sensation of being thrown backwards, but once again she didn't hit the ground. Starscream's hand curled around her, lifting her up and out of the haze of dust.

With one arm he held her protectivly while he raised the other and fired his missle towards the attacker. That pulled its attention way from the MECH agents towards Starscream. And Sierra.

"Hold on!" He shouted and darted back as a row of shots fired into the ground behind him.

Sierra wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to hold onto as Starscream transformed and suddenly the entire world was shifting hot metal. Somehow she ended up in the cockpit again, clutching at the sides of the seat as Starscream spun through the air. He was drawing the other alien's fire, keeping him busy and giving MECH time to escape.

"Starscream!" Silas's voice crackled over the comm "Starscream do you have Sierra!?"

"I have her," Starscream replied veering higher to avoid another shot.

"You're also fighting Bulkhead!"

"I.....didn't think this through."

"Be careful..." the connection crackled "We'll meet you-"

"Where? Where do I meet you? Silas? Are you alright?" Starscream circled rapidly around Bulkhead "Has MECH evacuated?"

A shot from Bulkhead clipped the jet's wing and he yelped in pain "I'm going to assume they got away."

"Where are we going?"

"Um," he sighed "Somewhere away from here."

"Well duh, anywhere in particular?"

"Yeah-ah!" Starscream shouted as something dark whipped past him.

"What's that!?"

"Arcee. But what's she doing here!?"

"It's a 'she'!?" Sierra didn't hear if he'd answered her or not as she almost slammed against the control panels again as Starscream dipped down abruptly as the smaller black jet banked and literally tried to crash it- herself into them.

"Is she insane?"

"Ally! Ally come in I need a Groundbridge!"

"Who's Allie? What's a Groundbridge?" Sierra asked the questions without even thinking about it, her eyes trying to track Arcee.

"Starscream, come in, what are your coordinates?"

"Whyyyy don't you have my coordinates!?"

"Uhhh...the coordinator isn't working again."

"Dreadwing! It's not called a coordinator!"

"Well what's it called then?"

"It's a..."

"See, you don't know either."

"I'm getting shot at! Try and fix it!"

"How do I do that?"

"I don't know hit it or something!"

"Don't hit it!" Someone else shouted across the comm line "Do not hit it!"

"Someone get me a Groundbridge already!" Sierra squealed as Starscream barrel-rolled to avoid Acree again.

"Did you just squeal?"

"I have a human! I have a human, she's the one who's squealing!"

"Where'd you get a human?"

"I'll explain it AFTER YOU BRIDGE ME BACK!"

"I don't have your-!" whatever it was the other person was saying was cut off as Arcee nailed Starscream's left thruster. He shouted in pain and Sierra felt him begin to lose altitude.

"Are we going to crash?" she couldn't believe she sounded so quiet and calm. "It's going...to be a hard...landing..." Starscream's voice was strained "Just hold on."

Well she'd already almost died from jumping. Plummeting out of the sky inside of a sentient alien jet couldn't hurt any more than the bottom of a cliff, right? Right? She swallowed hard as they connected with the ground. She felt the jarring impact in every bone of her body and her teeth crunched against each other.

"Out, out, quickly," Starscream ordered and before she could even see straight again she was scrambling out onto the ground. He transformed just as Arcee landed.

Instantly she lunged at him, swiping at his face with the blades along her forearms.

"Murdurer!"

Sierra felt a stab of pain run through her head at the screech, it was so loud. "You killed Cliffjumper!"

Starscream struggled to defend himself with his sword, barely able to keep Arcee from ripping him to shreds.

Sierra raced behind a large rock to avoid just being crushed underfoot. It took several seconds for her head to clear and she peeked back out just in time to see Starscream collapse, blue liquid streaming down from him and pooling around his feet.

Sierra glanced around her, feeling desperate as Arcee picked up Starscream's sword and leveled it against his neck. Her eyes picked up a dark crack in the base of a cliff and she had an idea.

"Hey!" Sierra's first shout barely scratched it out of her throat, she swallowed and dashed out behind the rock "Hey!"

Arcee paused and looked down at the insect of a human being.

"He didn't kill Cliffjumper! I did!"

Arcee scoffed, but her voice sounded cracked "Cliffjumper would never allow himself to be extinguished by something so insignificant."

Despite everything Sierra felt a twinge of sympathy. Whatever was going on, the death of Cliffjumper clearly was affecting Arcee. But she was also holding a sword to Starscream's neck, who had saved Sierra from Cliffjumper, who had tried to crush Sierra, so- she didn't feel too bad for her.

"He did," Sierra clenched her sweating palms into fists "He fell because of me. Well, partly because of me, mostly because he was an idiot."

"You little-"

"Yeah, little me," Sierra snapped "Stupid Cliffjumper underestimated 'little me', he thought I wouldn't jump. Well I did and guess what? He fell too."

With a yell Arcee swung the sword and buried in the earth where Sierra had stood a second before.

"And you're not going to kill me either!" Sierra dashed back to the rock, shouting over her shoulder. Arcee swept the sword out towards her again and the very tip of it sliced through Sierra's sleeve and she could feel the cold metal brush against her skin.

She veered around the rock, while Arcee simply stepped over it. "I'll smash you into paste, human scum."

"Good luck!" Sierra sprinted the last few feet to the cave and slid into it like a baseball player into home.

Arcee crouched and followed after her into the dark. Sierra didn't know how far back the cave went, but she hoped it was far enough.

"Hold still, you-" Sierra couldn't hear the rest of the sentence past the beating of her own heart as she threw herself against the wall and hoped that Acree would walk past her. The heavy pounding footsteps passed and as soon as they had Sierra was back on her feet, hardly breathing as she slipped back towards the mouth of the cave.

She'd almost made it when blaster fire sounded behind her and the impact of the shot threw her forwards.

She landed sobbing at Starscream's feet. "Shoot! Shoot the cave mouth!"

Without hesitation Starscream raised his arm and fired off his missile.

It smashed against the mouth of the cave, sending down an avalanche of earth and stone upon Arcee.

"Is she dead?" Sierra asked breathlessly as she climbed back up to her feet.

"Unfortunately, probably not," Starscream shook his head "We should get out of here as quickly as possible."

"No argument there. Uh, question though, where are we going to go? Can you fly?"

"No, I don't think so. We'll... just have to walk," he knelt and held out his hand to her.

She stared at him and swallowed "Don't drop me, okay?"

"Of course not."

She stepped into his palm, every muscle tight. Her knees bent and her arms swept out for balance as he straightened back up and started walking.


	13. Pt. 13

"Starscream, come in Starscream, what is your position? Confirm your status."

  
Soundwave repeated the message several times, but received no answer.

  
"What are the previous Groundbridge coodinates?" Megatron asked "Do you have them?"  
"Yes."

  
"Good. Set a course for them. When we get there, we'll commence a search."  
"Sounds like a plan," Soundwave started to do as he was told, but an alarm sounded.

  
"What is that? Is that him?"

  
"No...It's Groundbridge activity, it's the Autobots! Do I set a course?"  
"No... Yes...Let me think," Megatron turned "76, 78."

  
"Yes sir," the two Eradicons answered in unison.

  
"The two of you will accompany Soundwave to Starscream's last known coordinates and aid him in searching for the commander. The Ally will set a course for the Autobot's coordinates. Everyone understand?"  
"Yes sir," the chorus came up from all around and everyone began to do as they where told.

  
Soundwave paused and laid a hand against Laserbeak.

  
"No," she said, not dethatching from him "No, I'm going with you. Raf'll be fine."  
"Please Laserbeak?"

  
"No."

  
He could feel her agitation at the request and her anger at the fact he'd even dared to ask, but he continued to press "Please, Laserbeak? If there's a fight with the Autbots I need to know that Raf will be safe."

  
"I need to know that you'll be safe! I will not stay."

  
He sighed and continued walking towards the flight bay, though he kept begging her silently. She stayed obstinate all the way to the flight bay.  
\----  
"Are you sure these are the right coordinates?"

  
If Wheeljack had to hear Smokescreen say that one more time, they were going to have one less idiot hanging around the base.

  
"Yes," he gritted out "I am positive."  
"What if you decoded them wrong?"

  
"I did not decode them, Prime did, are you doubting Prime?"  
Smokescreen looked like he very much indeed was doubting Prime, but he only sank into a sulky silence, much to Wheeljack's relief, but it only lasted a few seconds.

  
"Wheeljack, you have Deception incoming," Ratchet's voice came grating across the coms "Looks like they're airborne."

  
"Estimated time of arrival?"

  
"Thirty minutes."

  
"So we got time," Smokescreen said.

  
"No we do not 'got time'," Wheeljack snapped "We still have to find what it was that the coordinates are leading us to and retrieve it and we do not have the first idea of what it might be."

  
Smokescreen rolled his eyes "Glass half empty much? Come on, lets go find our precious little whatever it is we're trying to find. Y'know it'd be a whole lot easier if Optimus had sent Arcee and Bulk and Cliff with us. I still don't see why we're helping out the locals."

  
"Which is why Optimus is Prime and you are not," Wheeljack shook his head "It's political kid. Besides, we've got Bumblebee."

  
"Who I haven't seen since we bridged here. He's probably gone off to burn some rubber without us."

  
Wheeljack would've gladly have traded the two off, letting Smokescreen burn whatever he wanted while the silent scout aided Wheeljack in their, most likely vain search.

\----  
"So, uh," Sierra broke the silence awkwardly "Who was that back there?"

  
"Her name is Arcee," Starscream replied a bit shortly, Sierra couldn't blame him though, he still seemed to be in quite a bit of pain, though he'd stopped leaking the blue liquid.

  
"She doesn't like you."

  
"That...is the understatement of the millennia," he laughed breathily "Cliffjumper? He was her partner. Can't imagine...she's pleased."

  
"Are they the same species as you are?"  
"Well, yes. But, oh, it's complicated."

  
"And I think I've landed myself right in this complication," Sierra pointed out.  
"Yes, quite unfortunately I think you have. Arcee will not forget you."  
"You don't think she's dead?"

  
"No, I don't think so. We can be difficult to kill, which is one of the reasons this war has gone on so long."  
"What war?"

  
"Oh dear," Starscream paused and pulled himself up onto a long ledge "I think this is as far as we're going to get tonight."

  
"What war, Starscream?" Sierra pressed as he set down.

  
"It's a long ordeal, very political, but at the very simplest, there's two factions who split over differing ideals a very long time ago and have been warring ever since. Autobots; which is what Arcee is, and Deceptions, which is what I am," he pointed at the purple crest emblazoned on his wing.

  
"Okay, I'll keep in mind to avoid anyone with a red crest then."

  
He lifted an eyebrow "I'm surprise you noticed that. But yes, that's the Autobot symbol."

  
"I got a pretty good look at her in the cave."  
Sierra sat next to him, her legs kicking over the edge "Are you going to be alright?"

  
"Oh yes of course. As I said, we are pretty hard to kill."

  
She didn't look convinced but didn't press the subject.

  
"You should probably try to sleep. No one's going to find us until morning."

  
"Okay," Sierra figured that being made of metal, sleeping on the ground probably didn't bother him, but the most uncomfortable place she'd ever slept was the pullout couch at her friend's house.

It probably wasn't a bad thing, as the day began to repay inside her head. Running, falling, the taste of dust and copper in her mouth.


	14. pt 14

It was almost too dark too see by the time the Ally had reached the Autobot signals.

  
From his place on the ground Wheeljack snarled in frustration. He and Smokescreen still hadn't found what they were looking for, nor did they have the faintest idea what it was the coordinates were directing them to search for. Also, Bumblebee seemed to have abandoned them entirely.

  
"Well, I guess we fight?"

  
"Are you insane?" he glared at Smokescreen "You want to fight a warship?"  
"Can't be that hard."

  
"You idiot," Wheeljack let it slip before he even thought "They'll shoot off two of their canons and we'll be little puddles of metal on the ground."  
"Tuck and roll."

  
"You can't tuck and roll out of the way of a turret cannon!"  
"Wanna bet?"

  
The heavy whine of cannons powering up cut off Wheeljack's reply.  
"Ratchet! Groundbridge! Now!"

  
Before there was an answer across the commlines the ground began trembling and whatever reply he might have received from the medic was lost in the crack of stone.

  
"Tuck and roll!" Smokescreen bellowed and flung himself sideways into Wheeljack, knocking them both to the ground as the Ally fired on them.  
"That wasn't a tuck or a roll!'  
"It was a magnificent tuck and a roll!"

  
Before Wheeljack could come up with a suitably scathing retort the Ally fired again, the blast sending them flying in opposite directions.  
As Wheeljack was digging his face out of the dirt, he felt a second set of hands pull him up and backwards, just out of range of the next volley of enemy fire.

  
"Bumblebee! Where in blazes have you been!"

As per usual the scout made no reply, but he tugged on Wheeljack's arm, pulling him back as the ground split open.

"What is that!? Smokescreen screeched as something began to writh up through the churning dust "What are the 'cons doing!?"  
Bumblebee tugged on Wheeljack's arm again, this time just to get his attention.  
"Busy scout!"

Bumblebee tugged again, more aggressively, then held his hand out.  
"What is that?" Smokescreen sprinted back towards them and made a grab for whatever Bumblebee was holding.  
The scout swept his arm back, avoiding Smokescreen.

  
"If you've got something then bloody well use it, if not then let's get out of here."

  
In response Bumblebee flung his arm upwards and there was a metallic whirring. A long rod extended from the taloned hand and from the tip a beam of dark violet light shot out, laser-like. It cut through the green yellow air and hit the bow of the Ally.  
"Great a laser pointer, what are you gonna do with that!? Give the Decepticons a Power Point presentation?!?"  
Bumblebee flicked his thumb and there was a sharp click.

  
The shuddering ground stilled, then erupted. Wherljack and Smokescreen both lost their footing as massive shapes tore through the soil beneath them.  
"What are those?!" Smokescreen screeched, eyes wide and mouth hanging open limply as the dark cloud rose upwards, swarming to the light.

  
"Insecticons!" Wheeljack burst out with a harsh bark of amusement "Well done scout!"  
\----  
To her surprise, Sierra found herself waking up. Which meant she'd fallen asleep. Somehow. But her body didn't seem pleased that she'd fallen asleep on rocky ground or that it'd been woken up so soon.

  
"Commander?" She mumbled, rubbing dazedly at her eyes as she peered upwards.  
"Shh!" He waved a slender hand to quiet her.

  
"What is it?" She asked hissing in a stage whisper, uncertain that he'd be able to hear her if she lowered her voice all the way.  
"Someone's circling us," just past his voice she could make out the drone of an engine.  
"Arcee?"

  
"I'm not sure, I think-" before he could finish the thought an aerodynamic shape dropped out of the sky and banked sharply towards them.  
In the dark, Sierra was positive she recognized Arcee's missile-like alt-mode and ducked backwards behind Starscream's ankle. He seemed to agree with her as he drew out one sword with his undamaged arm.

  
The action didn't deter the oncoming craft and it arched downwards. Midair it transformed and a wave of dust billowed out as their feet hit the ground.  
"Soundwave!" Starscream lowered his blade with an obvious hint of relief in his voice.

  
"You look terrible!" was the quick, amiable reply "What happened? You get in a fight with a paper shredder?"  
"Arcee, so, close enough," Starscream stepped forwards but paused and winced "Please tell me the doctor's with you."  
"The doctor is with us."

  
"Really?"

  
"Nah, it's just me and 8 and 6. The Ally picked up Autobot signals and the Groundbridge's down again."  
"Ah brilliant."

  
Sierra felt lost and a tad bit forgotten as the two giants greeted each other. She didn't move with Starscream and found herself in the open when he stepped forwards. Suddenly the night was freezing cold and she hugged her arms around her chest. The movement caught Soundwave's attention and he tilted his head.  
"Made a friend?"

  
"Oh," Starscream seemed to remember her "This is Sierra. It's... complicated."

  
"Hello," Soundwave ignored Starscream's comment in favor of hunching over, closer to Sierra. With a jolt she realized he didn't appear to have a face. He crooked one of his gangling arms and extended it towards her, uncurling his hand and offering her a single digit "Name's Soundwave."

  
"Sierra," she rasped up at the faceless creature and wrapped her both hands around his finger, giving it a careful shake.

  
"A pleasure," he straightened back up and with a considerably quieter, less chipper tone asked Starscream "What happened?"  
"I'll tell you later, help me with my arm first."  
"Oh, right. Sit."  
\---

"Retreat!" Megatron's bellow furled out across the bridge and the comms "Insecticon swarm! Turn this ship around!"

  
Any further orders were drowned in the all-encompassing scream of beating metal wings. Despite being deaf to any other sound, every Decepticon on the Ally could feel as the first Insecticon claws dug into the hull plating. The screech of ripping plates could be heard, even above the swarm.  
The Ally's engines bawled in protest at the added baggage as ship slowly banked and began to pick up speed. The swarm couldn't hope to match the speed of the warship, but the ones that had already latched on were there to stay, burrowing into the skin of the ship like so many maggots.

  
"Sir, imminent hull breaches on decks 3-7, 11, and 13 in multiple areas."  
"Understood, you keep the helm Q-T, X-89, 8-17, you two with me."

  
Obediantly the other two Vehicons followed after him. It took them mere minutes to locate the first breach. The metal was buckling and sparks where flying and as the three of them spun out of their alt-modes a massive set of mandibles ripped through the last shreds of plating. The Vehicons landed in a crouch, blasters already firing up. Megatron let the momentum from his transformation fling him forwards and as the Insection's head burst into the hallway the Deceticon leader met him with his blade.  
\----  
With rising anxiety Q-T watched as various sensor alarms went off, all warnings of the immienet Insection destruction. He flinched as a particularly loud one began to sound. 

"Scrap," he hissed under his breath as he realized it was the proxemity alert for the bridge. He whirled, one servo turned to blaster as the unmistakeble whirr of Instecticon wings filled the air. The hulking creature tore out of the hallway, laser-focused on the Vehicon and the paltry blast from Q-T's weapon did nothing to deter him. With a yelp, the Vehicon flung himself to the side and the Insecticon barreled into the console, sending a spray of sparks.  
Q-T just had enough time to climb back to his feet and fire off another round of shots that did absolutly nothing (what was that thing's armor made out of!?) before the Insecticon pulled free and took after him again.

  
Q-T transformed and took off full throttle, just barely ahead of the Insecticon. At breakneck speed, they tore around the lower level of the bridge, Q-T not even an inch ahead. They reached a desperate stalemate, Q-T not able to shoot and even if he could his weapons were useless and the Insecticon not able to catch him and too stupid to change stratigies. Q-T was on the eighth-going-on-ninth circuit around the lower deck when a flicker of light caught on the edge of his windshield. The console was still erupting with sparks and wires dripped across the floor, torn when the Insceticon freed himself, and pulsing with charge. Hey, the Doctor's stick did that somtimes and it was able to pierce through all sorts of armor no problem. So maybe wires didn't exactly equal a highly specialized piece of equipment, but it was worth a shot.

  
Still speeding, Q-T transformed, using the momentum to fling himself upwards. He landed running, the furious buzzing right behind him. With a twist he threw himself to the side and the Insecticon barreled into the mess of wires.

  
Q-T curled his arms around his head at the horrific screech the Inescticon let out. Then a second later was complete silence.  
Letting out a nervous breath, Q-T uncurled and sat up, turning and hoping to find a charred husk of bug, or at the very least, immobile. What he found was a perfectly unharmed Insecticon.  
They made eye contact, or visor contact, and Q-T powered up his guns, expecting the fight to continue.  
The Insecticon hummed and looked away, trundling out of the remains of the console and completely ignoring Q-T.

  
What...on....Cybertron...

  
Waitwaitwait. Q-T grinned to himself as he watched the Insecticon wander off. The Insecticons were controlled by a Hive mind and the Hive mind by the frequency the staff let out. Disrupt the frequency, disconnect the bug from the Hive and it was useless.

  
"Hey Megtron!" He shouted into the communications control.

  
"Uh, no," Knockout's voice crackled across the commlines "Unfortunately-" there was a pause that was filled with whirrin and an electric crackle "Not."  
"Sorry," Q-T closed the channel and opened another one "Megatron?"

  
A pair of sighs came across "No, Breakdown."

  
"Megatron has a closed command channel!" Knockout shouted, his words nearly obscured by the screech of metal "Use that!"  
"Right, right, sorry," fingers shaking with nervous excitment he opened another channel "Megatron?"

  
"Seriously!?"

"Sorry doctor."

  
Before the Vehicon could try again, there was a chirp of an incoming call.  
"Q-T, status update on the invading Insecticons," Megatron barked across the line "How many do you have on scanners?"

  
"Oh, yeah, there's a bunch, but sir-"  
"That is not helpful!"  
"But sir! I have an idea."

  
"Oh no, not again," X-89 said above the sound of blaster fire.

  
"It's a good idea! It's a really good one I promise 89!"  
Megatron's sigh rumbled across the line "What is it Q?"

  
"Okay so you know how the Doctor's staff-"  
"Get to the point Q-T."

  
"I zapped one of the bugs and I thought maybe if we steered the Ally close enough to the shields, we might be able to run an electric charge through the ship and-"  
"Okay, okay, I catch your drift, do it."

Q-T gave his best version of a Vehicon grin at the console "Right."

  
"Wait!" Knockout's voice warbled across the comms "No! Q-T don't do that! It's a really bad idea-"  
Too late.

****


	15. pt 15

Sierra dozed off against the window of the cockpit, half watching the clouds split and shred around the other dark flying shapes. Half listening to chatter that came over the radio. Some of it was English, some sounded like binary or Morse Code, and sounded like, well, an alien language, a hummed electronic murmur.

It was actually rather nice to listen to, even if she didn't know what they were saying.

"We're nearly there," Starscream's voice broke the soft monotony

"You awake?" "Yeah," she straightened a bit, blinking as she tried to clear her head "Sort of."

Suddenly the cloud bank rolled back and in the vast field of predawn a gargantuan shape cut a massive silhouette against the buzzing energy fields.

"Woah."

"Commander, something's wrong," one of the Eradicon's voice came across the comm "The Ally isn't answering any of my hails."

"Figures," Soundwave cut in "I leave for a couple hours and communications goes to the Pit."

"As if you've never offlined it yourself," Starcream retorted good humordly "The flight deck is clear, we'll just land and sort everything out later."

There was a light jolt, then Starscream rolled to a stop and waited for Sierra to get out.

"Is it always this dark?" She asked as she slipped.

Starscream transformed and the only light was the blue glow from his eyes and the Eradicon's visors.

"Electronic subroutines are down again," 78 sighed.

Or at least Sierra thought it was 78, she couldn't really tell the difference between them.

"Guys? Hey guys?!"

Everyone jumped as Soundwave shouted and simultaneously turned to glare at him.

He shrugged. "Comms still aren't working."

"Or they're just ignoring us," Starscream suggested "Because -ahem- that's happened before."

"I've been gone commander, how could I do this? Why would I even bother pranking myself?"

"All this time I've known you and I still can't fathom your motivations."

"Sirs?" 76 (Sierra thought) "Something's coming along the corridor."

They all paused and the scrape of heavy footsteps was clear.

Soundwave chuckled "Hey, Dreadwing! Very funny but you're way too klutzy for jumpscares."

No response, but the scraping came closer. Sierra suddenly felt cold and she stepped closer to Starscream's foot.

"Just a malfunction," he said quietly, noticing her movement "Or a bad prank. Either way no one's going to hurt you."   
She only swallowed and nodded.

"Megatron if this is about the bucket of hydrogen-oxygen liquid I dumped on you I'm sorry, I swear I meant it for Starscream."

"When was that?"

"Um. Nevermind."

The scraping grew louder and suddenly the bay doors shot open and several huge airborn shapes came barreling out. They made straight for the open sky with no regards to what was in their way. Soundwave went down with a yelp and the two Eradicons barely made it out of the way. Sierra darted behind Starscream's ankle, but twisted her head to follow the foreign shapes.

"What was-"

"Insecticons!" Soundwave gasped out as he stood back up "But how are they on Earth?"

"More importantly how are they on the Ally?" Starscream had a hand on his sword "That's...probably not good."

"Well duh," Soundwave appeared to eye the dark doorway "Shall we go by rank?"

"Oh Vector Sigma," Starscream rolled his eyes, then held his hand out to Sierra. She paused. She really, really did not want to walk around the giant dark alien spaceship, especially with something called an Insecticon running loose. But hey, she'd done a bunch of things she really hadn't wanted to do today, so what was one more? Or maybe it had been yesterday at this point. Man she wanted to sleep. She climbed into his hand and then to his shoulder, clutching at smooth metal, trying to stay steady and barely succeeding.

"Alright," Starscream drew one of his blades and started towards the door "Let's figure this mess out."

Then suddenly Soundwave was pressing against them, trying to push past.

"Oh, you want to go first now?" Starscream asked, stepping to the side.

"Raf! I forgot about Raf!" And then he'd transformed and disappeared.

"Who?" Sierra squeaked.

"Nevermind that, 78, you accompany Soundwave. 76 with me, we're going straight to the bridge, understand?"

"Sir, yes, sir," they said in perfect uniform, then 78 broke off and transformed, shooting after Soundwave.

"Right," Starscream looked back at the dark opening with an unenthusiastic flick of his wings "Let' get to the bottom of this."

\---

78 caught up to Soundwave quickly, though, only because he'd transformed and stopped to have an argument with Laserbeak. The Eradicon only caught the last bit of the conversation, but it was enough to tell him to stay out of it.

"You didn't listen, you never listen-"

A clatter from somewhere in the inky gloom cut Soundwave off and they all froze.

"Sir?" 78 ventured "Should we go and-" "No, we need to get to Raf."

But the faint cry for help made them rethink their plans. In a sparkbeat Laserbeak had zipped towards the sound, her tiny searchlight flicking back and forth across the corridor hall until it illuminated a beaten orange frame.

"It's Breakdown!" Soundwave glanced back towards the corridor that led to the storage bay where Raf was supposed to be, then with a guilty hunch of his shoulders darted after 78.

"We need to find the Doctor," the Eradicon said after a precursory glance at Breakdown's injuries.

"Over here!" Laserbeak had gone further down the hall and her light was on a crumpled figure. She landed next to him and nudged him with the tip of her wing. Instantly he sat bolt upright, his staff coming to life with an electric crack.

"Hey! Hey it's just me," Laserbeak soothed, taking back to the air and scooting a few feet away just to be safe.

"Sorry," he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and tried to stand up "What...when did you-"

"Doctor, Breakdown is hurt, we need to get him to the infirmary," 78 blurted before anyone else could offer any other explanation.

"Right," Knockout scrambled to his feet, clutching the wall for support "Where is he?"

Laserbeak twittered and zoomed back down the hall. With 78 supporting him, Knockout made his way to his assistant and he grimaced when he took in the injuries. "We need to get him to the infirmary right away. Soundwave help me get him-"

Soundwave's shoulders hunched guiltily "I have to check on Raf."

Knockout flinched and opened his mouth to speak, but it took several seconds for the words to come out "Soundwave, the ship was hit with a massive electrical surge...Do you...do you know what electricity can do to a human? Especially to a small one?"

Soundwave didn't answer. Just transformed and blasted off.

"Great," Knockout sighed "78, help me."

\----

The darkness seemed at once both stifling and vast. Starscream's every step sent metallic echoes bouncing down corridors far out of sight and drowned out Sierra's beating heart. It all seemed endless to her, but Starscream clearly knew where he was going.

"Almost there," he murmured softly as they rounded another dark corner.

The corridor opened up into a massive room, filled with dead computer screens and a mess of wires trailed out across the floor.

"Does it always look like this?"

"Uh, no, I really don't know what happened," he set her down on a console and knelt to work on reconnecting the wires.

"What are you doing?" She slid to the edge and went to her knees to peer downwards.

"Trying to restore communications -ack-" he pulled his hand back as electricity arched from the wires and zapped him "Well, at least we know we do have some sort of power."

The sound of static from the screen made them both jump. Sierra turned and Starscream straightened as an image flickered to life and a heavily distorted voice crackled across the speakers.

"Oh no," Starscream's voice dropped to a whisper and cracked "How did _he_ get this frequency."

A massive metal beast was framed by a background of swarming Insecticons. Violet eyes set in a sickly gray face bored holes in Sierra in the one second that they made contact with her gaze. But they swept past her and settled on Starscream.

"Well, you look well, Commander." Sierra curled her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palms at that voice. It sounded like open sea ice beginning to fracture, deep and threatening, with an utterly flat dull tone.

"What do you want, Optimus Prime" Starscream hissed and the venom in the words made Sierra jump.

Optimus chuckled roughly "I was hoping to confirm the end of a war that's gone on too long Commander."

"Well I'm _so_ sorry to disappoint you," Starscream snapped "But your face makes me sick, so I'll be going now."

The screen went black with a click.


	16. Chapter 16

"Raf! Raf, where are you!"

The door to the storage bay hadn't opened due to the power being down and Soundwave had to wrench it open to get in. But for all his frantic desperation, the little human was nowhere to be found.   
"Raf! C'mon, where are you!" 

A soft whine broke the still and Soundwave zeroed in on the noise, tracking it across the room to a pile of crates.

Carmine was hunched over, her nose stuck up and she strained towards Soundwave but wouldn't move from the curled up boy.

"Raf?!" Soundwave reached out and prodded the boy. Raf rolled limply.

\----

It took Starscream a good long twenty to repair the damage done to the console and reroute the power. By then Sierra had fallen asleep again, curled on the alien equivalent of a keyboard and missed the rather impressive light display as the ceiling pulsed to life.

Right away the commlines crackled to life spitting static.

With a couple of adjustments he cleared the lines and a familiar voice came barking across.  
"Who's got the lines turned back on?"

Starscream sighed in relief "I did, Megatron."

"You've returned Commander. Everything alright?"

Starscream glanced at the sleeping human "I'll explain face-to-face. What's your condition?"

"A bit frazzled, but the Vehicons and I are alright. Do you have the status of anyone else on board?"  
"Haven't heard from the Doctor or Dreadwing. Soundwave's gone to check on Raf."

"Alright. Try to contact the others and have them to report to med bay."

"Yes sir."

\----

"I think we're starting a zoo," 78 grumbled under his breath. Knockout nodded in absent agreement before glancing over at the tiny organics. Sierra was still fast asleep, not having stirred since Starscream carried her in. Raf was unconscious, but as Knockout hadn't managed to find anything wrong with him, the doctor hoped that the crates Soundwave had found the boy on had somehow dampened the shock. Carmine was unscathed and had burrowed beneath her human's arm.  
It was cute, in a kind of pathetic way. 

Equally pathetic but nowhere nearly as cute was Starscream trying to explain why he'd brought the human home.

Knockout had to give Megatron credit, at this point he would've just slapped the jet, told him to spit it out, then sent him off for a powerdown because the Commander was clearly exhausted.  
As it was, Megatron listened with the patience of a mountain waiting out a storm.

"So...I don't think she can leave-"

Wait what? Knockout tuned in at the wrong moment.

"Arcee doesn't let go of things like that if past experience is any judge and Optimus got far too a good a look of her face."

"Wait, she's not staying with us, is she?" Knockout interjected "We can barely keep track of Raf."

"She's known to the Autobots," when Starscream was tired his voice had a nasty scratch to it "She'd be in huge danger anywhere, but if she's here at least we can defend her."  
"And why do you care about her?"

"I put my spark on the line for her! I'd like for that to mean something!"

"Starscream, we'll finish this discussion after you've powered down," Megatron halted the argument before it got any further "Knockout return to your patients," he turned "Soundwave, take the Eradicons and make sure there aren't anymore Insecticons on board."

Soundwave glanced down at Raf, but didn't protest the order.

Starscream didn't budge however "She is going to stay here?"  
"Of course-" Megatron was cut off by a shriek.

Everyone spun around to find Sierra balancing on the edge of the counter, curling her entire body as far away as she possibly could get it from Raf and Carmine, who was trying to sniff at her shoes.  
"HE'S DEAD!"

"He's just asleep," Knockout informed her, turning away as soon he realized she wasn't being murdered.  
"He died three months ago in a house fire! What's he doing here!?!"

"Um...Soundwave saved him," Starscream tried to sooth her, his hands held out "He's not dead."  
"So what? Is this a normal thing for you?" She demanded, her messy red hair flicking about as she tipped her head to look up at him "You fly around saving humans on a daily basis?"  
"No," Megatron said "So far it's just you two."

"So far? You planning on more?" She stopped herself and shook her head "I'm sorry," her voice went down a notch "I'm sorry, that just freaked me out."  
"It's alright," Megatron leaned closer "That's natural. I'm Megatron. I'm in charge."  
"I'm Sierra...I'm going to sit down."

Megatron and Starscream both turned to look at Knockout expectantly.  
"What? I can't do anything. She's got a few bruises is all, humans can take care of that by themselves with a bit of time," Knockout went back to fussing over his other patients "Starscream you should get some rest."

Sierra looked up "You're leaving?"

Starscrean hesitated, his wings just barely fluttering in thought, and glanced at Knockout.  
"No, you cannot power down in here, I've got enough to deal with as is."

"Would you prefer to come with me?" Starscream offered, holding his hand out to her.

Sierra glanced quickly around the room, first at the rows of deathly still Decepticons laying out on slabs, then the snappish doctor, then the dead boy, then back at Starscream.  
"Please?"

He nodded and she stepped into his hand. She wobbled a bit when he lifted her up to his shoulder, but got her balance in time to step out and steady herself against his wing.  
Once he was positive she had her balance, Starscream started moving and slipped out of the medical bay.

\----

Breakdown awoke to an insistent ping on his comm and a raging headache. 

He sat up, wincing at the increased throbbing and opened the message. The first time he played it through, it didn't make any sense, but the second he bolted upright before it was halfway finished.  
"Breakdown?"

He blinked, realizing for the first time he was in the medical bay, sprawled on a slab, then looked across the room, at Raf, windmilling his arms.  
"What happened?" He rasped, sliding off the slab and holding his hand out for the boy to step up onto.

"Dunno," Raf shrugged as he scooped up Carmine "I think we got zapped."

"Right, I remember," Breakdown scanned the slabs. He wasn't surprised to see that Megatron wasn't incapacitated but-   
"Where's Knockout?"

"He's awake already," Raf supplied, clambering up Breakdown's wrist and starting for his shoulder "Said something about insulated armor or something?"

"Right," Breakdown couldn't resist the smile that touched his face as he recalled the incident that brought about that upgrade "Where's Megatron?"  
"Engine room, Knockout's with him," Raf secured himself on Breakdown's shoulder and sat down "They're trying to fix the comms."

Trying to fix the comms from the engine room. That meant the very relay units had been fried out and Breakdown foresaw a lot of tangling with very small wires in his future.   
But that wasn't the immienent issue. 

He reached up to move Raf, but the boy shoved away the heavy fingers "I wanna come, it's freaky just sitting here watching you guys sleep."  
"Alright, someone should probably keep an eye on you anyway," Breakdown said, stepping out of the medical bay and transforming. Raf whooped as he suddenly slide into Breakdown's backseat and Carmine yipped.

"That is never, in a million years, going to get old."

Sometimes on Earth, it was difficult not to feel overlarge and out of place, but if Knockout ever needed a reminder how just how big the world he came from was, he'd look up at the Ally's engine core. Nearly four Cybertronian stories high, it was a clear chamber that pulsed with blue energy that cast the entire engine room in an ambient aqua. Standing at the very bottom, Knockout couldn't see the top, even if he craned his neck upwards.

A metallic scraping reminded him he wasn't there to gawk at the engine core and he returned his attention to Megatron, who was pulling a face at the mess of wires he had his hands in.  
"I think I just made it worse."

Knockout checked his comm and without a doubt the static had increased to an obnoxious screech.  
"You did, but it's not going to get any better until you get that whole unit out." 

With an iritated harrumph Megatron gave the unit a rough tug and the whole unit came out nicely right into his lap.  
Suddenly off balance, Megatron stumbled and fell over, still clutching the unit.

"Can you fix it now?" He asked, voice muffled by the wads of wirse covering his face.

Knockout stifled a chucked and knelt to help Megatron pull the unit onto the floor "Hopefully, it doesn't look as bad as I first thought."  
They where broken off from any further conversation by the rumble of an engine and they both looked up as Breakdown arrived.  
His door flicked open, allowing Raf to slip out, before the orange 'con transformed.

"Hey, I didn't clear you from the med bay!"

"You weren't in med bay!"  
"You should have waited."

Breakdown rolled his eyes but the smirk of amusement Knockout had expected never manifested.

Instead he looked down at Megatron, face falling again "Got a comm from Silas."  
"What's up?" Megatron asked, climbing to his feet.

"Someone's found a ship. A Cybertronian ship. MECH just intercepted the intel," he paused, blue optics flickering "It appears to be Decepticon."


	17. pt. 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey look a chapter. I totally don't have like 10 chapters in backlog and am just too lazy to post them.

Sierra had never heard such a strange silence. Filled with metalic creaks and electric whines, but silence still.   
It kept creeping up when she wasn't paying attention, startling her just when she thought she'd come to terms with the events of the past day (two days?) and she'd start replaying everything all over.  
She huffed, trying to distract herself and out of habit, tapped her pocket, searching for her phone.

  
To her surprise it was actually there. Did it still work though? Could...could she call her family?

  
Worth a shot, she decided and pulled it out. But her numb fingers didn't get a good grip and she moved too quickly in her exciment and the cellphone slid out of her hand.  
She suppressed a squeak as she watched her phone skid off the edge of the desk and plummet to the ground with an awful crack.  
Her heart froze in her chest and she glanced over at Starscream, who was powered down in his alt-mode. He didn't so much as twitch and she hoped that meant she hadn't woken him up.  
Now, if only her phone wasn't broken it was just the matter of getting down.

  
She rolled over, so she was flat on her stomach, the metal edge digging into her palms, and she swung her legs out, trying to wrap her ankles around the desk leg.  
She just barely managed to get her feet around the metal leg. Well, close enough. She let go of the edge and reached for the desk leg. She managed to get a fairly good grip and slid down the leg for at least two yards before her knees gave out and she fell the rest of the way.

  
It hurt- she got the wind solidly knocked out of her- but all things considered, it wasn't the worst hit she'd taken recently.  
After gettig her breath back she stood up and made towards her phone, which had skid nearly halfway across the room thanks to the smooth metal floor.  
When she bent to pick it up, the wall in front of her shifted and she realized she'd tripped the sensor for the door.

  
She was going to step back and pray that the door closed by itself when footsteps echoed down the hall and Rafael appeared, his dog trotting at his heels.

  
"Hey!"

  
"Shhh!" she hissed, glancing over her shoulder "Starscream's asleep."

  
"You mean powered down."

  
"Yeah, whatever," Sierra brushed back an errant strand of tangled hair "I just don't want to bother him."

  
"You want to see something cool?" Raf's smile turned mischievous.

  
"Not really-"

  
"Great!" he grabbed her by the wrist and he might've looked like a little guy, but he had yanked her along after him down the corridor. The door slid shut behind her with a heavy whoosh and Sierra guessed she was committed to being pulled off by the crazy dead boy to some unknown part of the alien warship.

  
\----

  
"Can't you like, order him to clear me for combat or something?"

  
"He could," Knockout folded his arms over his chest stubbornly "But I won't do it."

  
Megatron shrugged helplessly at Breakdown, who sulked over the Groundbridge controls "You really aren't up for a fight."

  
"Doesn't mean I should stay."

  
"Don't worry big guy," Soundwave gave the other 'con a slap on his shoulder that nearly had Breakdown toppling over the control panel "I'll bring you back a souvenir."  
Breakdown shook his head with a grumble and activated the Groundbridge.

  
Megatron and Soundwave disappeared into the Bridge with a wave of sparks. Knockout hesitated long enough to receive a sour look from his assistant.  
"It's for your own good," the doctor snapped, before stepping onto the Bridge.

  
\----

  
The only thing Sierra saw when Raf pulled her around the corner was a wall of light, dizzying and spinning and she pulled away from it.  
"What's wrong?"

  
"What is that?"

  
Raf's smile kicked up a notch on the devious scale "Find out."  
"No way!"

  
Raf's hand darted out and he snagged her phone and darted off. Without thinking Sierra grabbed for it and the light enclosed around her and she lost her footing.  
The Ally melted away and she found herself facedown in swampy muck.

  
"Rafael!" She spluttered, spitting out a wad of heaven-knows-what.

  
"Shh!" Raf waved wildly, gesturing for her to be quiet, but she was in no mood to be shushed. Instead she stood back up, wiping mud from her knees and swiped her phone back from the boy.  
"Where are we?"

  
"No clue."  
"No-!?"

  
Raf pulled her back down into the muck, shushing her again "We're gonna get caught."  
"We're what?" Sierra followed Raf's gaze and felt her heart drop out of her chest. They definitely weren't on the Ally anymore. They'd been transported right into the middle of a swamp and ahead of them, Megtron, Soundwave and that irritated gray 'con were wading through the dark water and ducking beneath the vines.  
"We're not supposed to be here!"

  
"No, I know, awesome right?"

  
"You're crazy!"

  
"Be quiet! You don't want them to find out we came and have them send us back."

  
"Yes!" Sierra slogged forwards, her shoes already soaked through to her socks "That's exactly what I want to happen!"

"Don't be like that," Raf tried to run after her, but his foot caught on something and he went down on his knees.

  
By the time he'd gotten back up, Carmine had started yapping at something on his left, while Sierra was on his right.

  
"Carmine, come here girl!" He called hoarsely, trying to whistle. He couldn't quite manage but the little dog came scooting over to him nonetheless, tail tucked between her legs.  
"Good dog," He scooped her up and sighed in relief.

  
A shadow fell over him and Carmine whined loudly.

  
"Si...Sierra!?!?"  
Sierra sighed "What is it Raf? You find an alligator or something?"

  
Her words died in her mouth when she glanced over her shoulder and caught sight of the massive shadow looming over the young boy.  
"Rafael! Run!"

  
Raf was moving before Sierra had even shouted, but there wasn't any outrunning that shadow. A heavy hand shot out, scooping the boy off his feet and raising him to the height of a second story building in a matter of seconds.

  
Sierra couldn't....she couldn't help Raf.

  
She turned and followed her own advice. She ran.   
She knew there was no way she'd escape those violet eyes that swept through the swamp, tracking her. But, maybe, she'd get far enough.

  
"Megatron!" The first time she tried to scream, her voice went ragged with fear and breathlessness.

  
"Megatron! Megatron, help!!"

  
The pale Decepticon turned, confusion written across his face as he heard his name called out.   
"Sierra?"

  
"It's got Raf!" She managed to croak out as she slipped and went down on one knee. She didn't have the energy to stand back up. But she heard the rush of air as the massive alien stormed past her and she swore the ground trembled when he called out.

  
"Put the boy down, Prime!"

  
And Sierra's blood turned to ice in her veins when Optimus replied. Not by speaking, but by transforming his free hand to a blaster and leveling it with Raf's head.

  
Megatron froze.

  
"That's better. Can't concentrate with you running all over the place," Optimus chuckled "Never seen you stop so quickly for something so small."

  
"The human has nothing to do with this," Megatron bit out every word, his voice barely above a snarl "Put. Him. Down."

  
"On the contrary. A human," Optimus' voice turned both condescending and disgusted "Offlined dear Cliffjumper today. I need to know if it was this one," he shook Raf "Or the one cowering at your doctor's feet."

  
Sierra glanced up and realized that the Decepticon medic indeed was crouched over her protective, a metal staff clutched in one hand.  
But he was barely half the size of Optimus, so really, what could he do?

  
Where had Soundwave gone? He'd been there, hadn't he? Or had she imagined the lanky con?

  
"The humans had nothing to do to with Cliffjumper's death," Megatron locked Optimus' gaze with a steely certainty that made Sierra shudder "So put him down."  
"If you won't tell me which one it was, then I suppose I'll just have to kill both of them," Optimus' blaster powered up and Megatron lunged forwards with a shout, but Sierra knew there was just no way.  
A volley of shots poured out of the trees from behind the Prime, aimed directly at his feet. The hulking Autobot was thrown off balance momentarily and the power up sequence to his blaster was interrupted by his lapse of concentration.

  
A gleaming, green, birdlike creature came shooting out of the trees, keeping up the constant fire while Soundwave's red frame came out of seemingly nowhere, electric cables reaching for Optimus' face.  
Optimus fired off a single hot that clipped the bird creature's wing and sent it spiraling out of control, then batted away Soundwave's cables with his inbuilt blades.

  
"Ah, I should've know, Soundwave," the Prime didn't sound even slightly surprised "You really should be more careful with your pets, deployer, you have a tendency of loosing them. Though, this one won't be nearly as fun to rip limb from limb as Rumble was."

  
That elicited a high-pitched howl from the red 'con and he leapt, throwing himself bodily onto Optimus.

  
Sierra couldn't see what happened to Raf as Megatron joined the fight, but for a second, it looked like the Decepticons would win.

  
Then a red figure, a brighter, more obnoxious crimson than Soundwave, came darting towards the fighting aliens, whirling a staff over its head.  
"Scrap," the doctor swore "Stay here," he snapped at Sierra as he took off, eletric staff buzzing to life.

  
Stay there? No problem, Sierra thought, a half second before the swamp erupted with Insecticon activity and she was buried in a sludgy tidal wave.


	18. pt. 18

Mud. MUd.MUD. No up or down or air, just mud, soaking into her clothes and her lungs, blinding her and dragging her down.

  
Sierra thrashed, reaching out and hopefully up, but there was no way for her to distinguish anything. The only measure of time was how empty her lungs felt.   
Something met her outstretched hand after what seemed like an eternity and guided her up, back to the air thank God.

  
"Sierra, Sierra come on, we have to get out of here," Someone tugged on her shirt sleeve and she looked up to find Raf, barely recognizable covered in mud. Somehow, miraculously he seemed unhurt, and Carmine was shivering at his side.

  
"What?" she hacked out, too disoriented to comprehend what was going on.

  
Raf had the audacity to roll his eyes and reached out for her hand. If Sierra had been even slightly in more present mind she would recall that Raf pulling her around was how this mess started, but as things stood she was more mud than brain.  
Raf had no other plan than to drag Sierra and himself through the mud until they'd thoroughly lost sight of the fighting.  
They made it about five feet before that plan got cut short, mainly by the ground which gave way abruptly.

  
Raf imagined them plumetting into some endless pit or possibly a not quite endless pit that ended with angry jagged rocks or maybe even a vast lake of bubbling lava so hot that the heat would sear the skin from from their bodies before they even hit-  
O point second later they hit the ground again accompanied by a landslide of soft mud.

  
"Hey, it's the ship!"

  
"What ship?" Sierra spat, half out of confused frustration, half to get the mud out of her mouth. What she wouldn't give for some mouthwash.  
"The crashed Decepticon ship!"

  
"I could literally not be more confused right now."  
"Aren't you paying attention?"

  
Sierra stood up and planted her fists on her hips "I was just trying to get my phone back when you drug me into a giant portal. I had no idea! I still don't have any idea!"  
"Oh, so this is my fault?" Raf pulled on a puppy dog look that actually worked quite well despite the mud splatter glasses.  
Well, it would've worked well if Sierra didn't have her own baby sibling who tried that shtick once too often.  
"YES! This is very much your fault!"

  
Carmine whined, staring down the hall, ears pricked.  
Sierra and Raf ignored her, continuing to argue.

  
"Well excuse me for just trying to have a little fun!"

  
"Fun? Fun?! Was it fun when Optimus put a gun to your head??"  
"Well it was up to that point."

  
Carmine let out a sharp bark, making the two humans jump and they caught what the dog's sharp ears had already heard. Heavy footsteps clanging down the hallway.  
"Uh, maybe we should-" Sierra looked up at the hole they'd fallen through.

  
"It's a 'con ship. Whoever's coming should be a 'con. Nothing to worry about."

  
"But," Sierra argued as she started trying to scale the slope of mud "It might not be a 'con or," she started slipping back down and redoubled her efforts, which in turn only mad more mud come sliding down "It might a 'con who isn't as friendly as the ones we've met."

  
Raf squinted trying to digest that thought, but before he finished chewing it, the heavy footsteps were upon them.  
"It's a Vehicon!"

  
Sierra stopped fighting gravity and slid to a stop to stare at the silver and green 'con.  
"Hi!" Raf said after an awkard beat of silence "We're here to save you!"

  
"What?" Sierra and the Vehicon said in the same breath.

  
"Well not the two of us, but Megatron! He's here!"

  
"Megatron's here?"

  
"Yup!" Raf poked his finger upwards indicating the hole they'd fallen through.   
The Vehicon looked up just in time to see a massive foot come crashing through the ceiling.   
They all three screeched in terror and scrambled backwards as debris rained down.

  
The foot retreated with a squeal of metal and the sound of blaster fire became evident.

  
"Oh yeah. The Autobots are here too."

  
The Vehicon flinched obviously and Sierra didn't need to see his face to know that he was scared.  
"Here?! I can't fight! I'm an assistant!"

  
Before either of the humans could think up a solution the Vehicon's comm buzzed and he tilted his head abruptly, listening to the voice on the other side.

  
"No sir, I don't have the specimens....Well you see sir there's these oragnics....But...But they said...Sir! They say they're with Megatron!..." the Vehicon sighed "Yes sir. Right away sir."  
The Vehicon returned his attention to the humans "Shockwave says to bring you to the laboratory."

  
Sierra, like any sensible human, blanched at the thought of an alien labratory.  
Raf grinned.  
"Let's go!"

  
The Vehicon turned and took two steps, then looked back at the sound of tiny feet scrambling after him.  
"Hey! D'you expect us to walk?"

  
"Well what...? You don't expect me to pick you up, do you?"

  
"Well you could transform into your alt-mode and carry us that way."

  
The Vehicon shuddered visibly at the suggestion and extended a hand to the humans.   
Raf scooped up Carmine and stepped up on the Vehicon's palm. Sierra tried to scuff some of the mud from her shoes before hopping up and clinging to the Vehicon's thumb.

  
"Right," he sighed weakly "Let's go."  
\----  
Knockout was beginning to wish that Breakdown had come. Well, not in his current state. Breakdown was barely fit to man the Groundbridge as he was.  
Knockout wished he'd had time to complete repairs on his assistent and then brought him. Yeah. That's what he wished as Bulkhead snagged him by his tire struts and flung him into a tree.

  
He really hated trees.

  
Like really.

  
He wrenched a branch out his elbow joint and reactivated his electric staff just in time to lodge it beneath Bulkhead's jaw.  
For a second the eletricity paralyzed the beige bot but his full weight sagged forwards and Knockout couldn't brace against him.

  
So he wrenched his staff free and rolled to the side and let Bulkhead fall on his face. As soon as the big bot was down, Knockout was back up, tearing at Bulkhead's back. The Autobot's plating was thick but if Knockout could loosen just one panel, reach just one essential Energon line, then in the madness of battle then maybe, just maybe the brute would just bleed dry.

  
But apparently that was just too much to ask, Knockout realized as an Insecticon barreled into him blindly, throwing him into another grove of trees. Only instead of that horrible cracking of wood he hit something and it made a solid metal clunk sound.

  
Confused he turned and blinked at the dull gray wall in front of him.

  
Oh yeah. The whole reason they where there was to find a crashed ship.  
Well. He didn't see a door so....

  
The sound of Insecticon wings drowned out the sound of saws cutting into metal.  
\----  
The labratory wasn't really much better than Sierra expected it, tubes and vats boiling with dark syrupy liquids and glinting tools that looked vaughly like instruments of torture.  
But there wasn't any blood staining the floor so that was a plus.

  
Detracting from that plus was the massive cycloptic Cybertronian. No, not even a cyclops, they had one eye but still a face. This guy's face was his eye. Unlike Soundwave's blank mask there was a pinpoint of mobile light deep in the white blank plate.

  
Currently that light was focused on the nearest screen, tracking the scrolling glyphs.  
"Sir?" The Vehicon said as he took another step into the room "Shockwave?"

  
"Oh hi, Z-7, I was just logging the results of the last-"  
"Sir, our situation?"

  
"Situation?" His eye flickered.

  
"Megatron has come for us," Z-7's voice had an undercurrent of resigned exhaustion to it "I told you over comms five minutes ago."  
"You know I never pay attention when you're talking to me over- Wait, Megatron? Where?"

  
"Outside," Raf piped up "Fighting Autobots."

  
"What is that?!" Suddenly Shockwave's face... eye was much too close for comfort and Sierra nearly fell of the Vehicon's hand. Raf, however, leaned forwards.  
"We're humans. This is our planet," he explained, grinning "My name's Raf."

  
"Where did you get it?" Shockwave blinked, ignoring Raf.  
"It came through the ceiling."

  
"Fascinating-"

  
"Yes, sir," Z-7 cut him off "But they're with Megatron. Who is here. To rescue us. We should probably-"

  
"Megatron?"  
"Sir!"

  
"Oh, right, he's rescuing us. Well, where is he?"

  
"Fighting Autobots," Raf said, but Shockwave ignored him.  
"Fighting Autobots," the Vehicon repeated dully.

  
"Autobots? They're here too?"

  
"Is he okay?" Sierra hissed up at Z-7.  
"This is a good day for him."

  
"And you've been trapped down here with him for how long?"  
"Too long."

  
"But the ship's engnes are completely destroyed, there's no way we'll be able to escape in it."

  
"The Ally has a Groundbridge," this time Raf turned to look up at Z.

  
"Sir, they have a Groundbridge, we'll have to abandon-"

  
"We can't! Some of these experiments can't be moved! I have to-"

  
"Stay here and get dismembered by Autobots?"

  
Shockwave's shoulders sank "But...But...Oh dear."

  
"Project 72," Z-7 said with an abrupt certainty "That's the most important. We have to save that."  
"Yes, yes of course but-"

  
Z-7 turned and marched out of the room before Shockwavee could compile a list. Sierra realized after a second that the vehicon was shaking.   
Raf seemed to realize it too and peered up at the emotionless mask "You okay?"

  
"Y-ye- there's really Autobots? Out there?"

  
"Yup."

"You're sure?"

  
"Yeah. Very sure."

  
"I've never been in a fight. I... I don't even have inbuilt weapons. I-I....The experiment," he cut himself off as he stopped in front of another set of bay doors "Just focus on the experiment Z-7478," he mumbled to himself as he keyed in a code and stepped through the doors.

  
Raf would have fallen headfirst from the Vehicon's hand if Sierra hadn't managed to both keep her feet and react quick enough to snag the back of Raf's shirt.  
The reason for Z-7's abrupt stop was evident. This room obviously didn't usually feature the earsplitting shriek of metal on metal or white-hot lines on the wall that threatened to collapse inwards at any second.

  
Z-7 dumped the humans and the dog onto the table and snatched a vaughly sharp looking tool off of it.

  
The wall buckldd beneath the stress and Z-7 took a timid step forwards, jabbing his 'weapon' towards the vauge smoke-wreathed figure that descended into the room.  
"Don't point that thing at me!" An irritated voice snapped "I'm here to help you."

  
Knockout brushed the point of the instrument away and came into full view.

  
Raf heaved an audible sigh then raced across the table flailing his arms "Hey Doc!"  
Knockout faltered, his eyes going wide with shock "Raf!?"

  
"Yup! It's me."

  
"But you where just..." Knockout pointed vaugly over his shoulder "How!?"

  
"We fell down a hole in the ship and ended up in here," Raf shrugged "What are you doing here?"  
"Staging a rescue. Who's on this ship? Any more humans I should know about?"

  
"No sir," Z-7 said in reply to the questioning look the doctor shot him "Just Shockwave."

  
"...nevermind, no rescue."


	19. pt 19

"Who??" Megatron bellowed into his comm again, unable to hear anything more than the faint crackle of static above the screeching Insecticons.  
"What?" Soundwave shouted back, pausing to glance over at Megatron.

  
"Not talking to you! Doctor-" Megatron tried again after ducking a pair of mandibles "Who is on that- Oh, OH," he batted away a hooked claw that reached for his face "No, we can't just leave him! Transmit your coordinates to the Ally and get out of there! Soundwave and I will come once we locate Raf and...you have them? Okay great, Soundwave! Time to go!"

  
Soundwave turned and immediatly an Insecticon blindsided him, sending him facedown into the mud.

  
"Soundwave!?"

"I'm fine," Soundwave's voice buzzed over the comm "But we can't leave until we find Raf."

  
"He's with Knockout, call Laserbeak and let's-" Optimus' fist cut off the rest of the sentence.

  
"Right, we'll leave as soon as I deal with Orion," Megatron blinked away the swamp muck and rolled back to his feet.

  
Optimus snarled and tried to hit Megatron again and punched an Insecticon instead. Megatron tried and failed not to laugh.

  
"Those bugs are a real asset, aren't?" he called, backing through the mud "The way they're barely controllabe, and their intellect is beyond compare, a rock would be insulted to be put on the same level as them and they're all yours!"

  
"You mock my army?"

  
"How much Energon does it take to fuel them?"

  
Optimus didn't even answer, just launched himself like the flightframe he _wasn't_ towards Megatron. Who transformed and went up, doging the storm of wings and a couple of shots from Optimus, one which nailed the underside of Megatron's left wing.

  
"Brilliant," he growled, as he spun out of control.

  
\---

  
"What do you mean he's not coming back online?"

  
Dreadwing managed to say it first, but Knockout could see it on all their faces.

  
"I mean," he repeated listlessly "He's not going to wake up."

  
"Why not, what's wrong with him?"

  
"I....I don't know," Knockout admitted, then fixed his gaze on a fascinating wall panel.

  
"What do you mean you don't know?" Starscream spluttered after a couple of stunned seconds "How can you just not know? There should at least be an obvious reason as to why someone won't wake up?"

  
Sierra agreed silently. Although from her perch on the Commander's shoulder, it looked like Megatron had more than a few reasons not to wake up. She hadn't seen when he'd hit the ground, but it took the other 'Cons several hours of combing through mud and staving off Insecticons to gather up the various pieces of their leader. Then several more hours for Knockout to put him back together. It still looked like he could use a bit more attention.

  
"I don't know, everything considered, he's doing well, just not responding to any of our attempts to wake him up," Knockout ran a hand across his face and slumped fractionally. He radiated exhaustion, despite his stiff pose.

  
Behind him, Breakdown wasn't even trying to pretend he wasn't tired. He was slumped against a console, eyes dim and half shut.

  
"What do we do?" One of the Vehicon's asked. Sierra had no idea which one. Why did they all have to match?

  
But suddenly everyone was staring at her. No, staring at Starscream, she only happened to be on his shoulder, where she could feel as he practically wilted beneath the attention.

  
"We keep going as usual," he said, forcing his wings to arch upwards "This isn't the first time Megatron has been incapacitated and it won't be the last."

  
He lifted his head and scanned the small crowd, then squinted "Where's Shockwave?"

  
"Oh," Knockout heaved a sigh "I told him to set up in that back up lab. Figured he couldn't hurt anybody back there. Also, we won't have to see him as often."  
"Right, how long ago was that?"

  
Knockout looked like he wanted to melt into the floor.

  
"I'll check on him," Starscream sighed "The rest of you return to your duties."

  
Quietly everyone filed out, Starscream taking up the rear, leaving the two exhausted medics with the dismal whirr of lifesupport.

  
\----

  
Starscream stalked through a maze of increasingly dark hallway, muttering to himself on occasion.

  
"Are you okay?" Sierra dared after several minutes of listening to him click and chatter in some undecipherable dielectric.

  
He startled and slowed his pace considerably "I forgot about you."

  
"You do seem to have bigger things to deal with."

  
He held his hand up, palm flat so she could step down onto it.

  
"You scared me, you know," he said, bringing her up to his eye level "When I woke up and couldn't find you."

  
"Sorry," she ducked her head, trying to hide her blush "It was an accident."

  
"I should hope so, how did you end up in Groundbridge control room though, just out of curiosity?"

  
She explained and for a second she almost thought Starscream would laugh.  
But he didn't.

  
"Sorry," she said, after several seconds of quiet.

  
"It's alright," he replied absently, mind obviously elsewhere "Just try not to do it again. I have my hands full enough with Soundwave and Shockwave too."  
"Knockout doesn't like him."

  
"Pfft, I'm not surprised, Shockwave has a way of rubbing everyone the wrong way."

  
\----

  
"Knockout....Knockout c'mon. You need to go to your quarters."

  
Knockout tried to mumble that he needed to stay and monitor Megatron's vitals, but Breakdown should go ahead and call it a night. He tried, he really did, but with his face pressed against the crook of his elbow, the words were fairly useless.

  
"C'mon buddy, you go into alt-mode when you recharge and last time I stepped on you," Breakdown had actually stepped on him twice, but like he was going to tell Knockout that.  
"But...monitor..."

  
"The Vehicons got it."

  
"The Vehicons are idiots," he protested as Breakdown hauled him to his feet and began to drag him towards the door.

  
"Oh they're not that bad," Breakdown laughed "Besides, I bet you'd rather have them than Shockwave."

  
Knockout blinked up blearily at his assistant "I'd push Shockwave off the ship."

  
\----

  
Arcee pressed herself harder against the wall, away from storm of the Insections that was impossible to escape from within the base. Her hands spread over her face as a long constant keen emitted from her throat, audible even above the Insecticons.

  
"What's her deal?" Smokescreen asked, voice raised to be heard over the din.

  
"Cliffjumper," Bulkhead replied, voice raised as well.

  
"What about him?"

  
Bulkhead shot him a look "He died."

  
"Yeah, so?"

  
"Kid, the two of them were working together before you were alive," Wheeljack growled as he walked up behind the pair "How she grieves in none of your business."

  
Smokescreen opened his mouth to reply when the clatter of familiar footsteps echoed through the hall behind them.  
All three of them crowded to the side as Prime came limping in, followed by Ratchet.

  
"You idiot, you could have at least let me oversee the injection if nothing else," Ratchet nagged as he poked at Optimus' elbow "What if-"

  
Prime shut him up with a heavy smack across his shoulder the second the medic dared to touch him. The blow didn't hurt Ratchet --much-- but cowed him into silence.

  
"Bumblebee," Optimus rasped, glaring into the room swarming with Insecticons "Do something about this mess."

  
Bumblebee edged past Optimus, taking an obvious care not to brush against him, then rose the staff.  
For a second the buzzing grew louder, more intense, then died away as the Insecticons powered down.  
The only sound was Arcee's scream.

  
"Does she malfunction?' Optimus growled, clearly irritated.

  
"It's Cliffjumper," Wheeljack explained, crossing his arms over his chest.

  
"Ah yes," Optimus stepped the rest of the way into the room avoiding hibernating Insecticons "A tragedy indeed. But, where a comrade falls, so does our greatest enemy!"

  
"You think Megatron's dead?" Wheeljack asked, raising an eyebrow "It was a good shot Prime, but Megatron's proven to have a strong spark and his bunch'll do everything they can to put him back together."

  
"Oh, not a lie on your lips, Wheeljack, but a groundless doubt nevertheless."

  
'How so, sir?"

  
Optimus transformed one hand into his blaster and raised it to Wheeljack's face. Wheeljack didn't so much as flinch.

  
"What do you see, Wheeljack?" Optimus demanded.

  
"Uh, his doom?" Smokescreen supplied as he and Bulkhead tried to wedge themselves behind the main computer terminal, alongside Ratchet.  
Wheeljack met the Prime's gaze for a second, questioning, then looked down the barrel.  
For a second his face was blank, then, slowly, horror crept across his expression.

  
"No," he breathed "Please tell me you didn't."

  
"He did," Ratchet chimed "he really did."

  
"Did what?" Smokescreen asked in a stage whisper, although, he looked like he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

  
"You integrated the Dark Energon directly with your systems," Wheeljack said, looking up to meet Optimus' once red, now violet, eyes "You shot Megatron with a full dose of Unicron's poison."

  
"Yes," Optimus huffed a heavy chuckle "I did. The Autobot's ancient enemy lives on borrowed time, if he indeed functions at all still."


	20. pt. 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey we got to Chapter 20!

“Hey Doc.”

  
Knockout glanced up, looking for his assistant, before realizing that he was talking over the comms.

  
“Do you need something?”

  
“Where you at?”

  
“Oh,” Knockout looked around “Lab.”

  
“Lab?”

  
“Yes. Don’t come in, I’m sanitizing some of Shockwave’s questionable items.”

  
“Really?” Knockout heard the click of glass against glass over the line “The main lab? The one I’m standing in? The one you’re not in?”

  
Knockout heaved a sigh “That would be the one.”

  
“So if you aren’t in here, then where might you be?”

  
“Listen-” Knockout dug his elbow against the dusty wall of the canyon and looked down the road “I needed a bit of space-”

“Primus tell me you aren’t,” Breakdown cut him off “If you’re racing again I swear...Swear to…”

  
“I’m not, I promise, I’m not, Breakdown.”

  
“Yeah, you also said you were in the lab.”

  
“Listen-”

  
“No, you listen. Come back right now.”

  
“I’m not even in my altmode, I went for a walk, Breakdown, calm down.”

  
“Yeah sure calm down, last time you went for a “walk” we found you upside in a ditch.”

  
Knockout couldn’t really argue with that, but he wasn’t about to admit it.

  
“The human cheated.”

  
“I don’t care. Come back.”

  
Knockout rolled his eyes and glared down at his feet “The commander gave me an hour. I still have twenty minutes left.”

  
“You’ve been gone that long?”

  
“I’ve been off shift for forty minutes yeah.”

  
“You were supposed to power down.”

  
"Well I didn't," Knockout began to loose interest in their conversation as he thought he caught the sound of a distant motor.

  
"Twenty minutes or I'm coming to drag you back."

  
"Go check on Megatron."

  
Breakdown huffed and probably would have gone on again, but Knockout cut the line.  
He defintly heard a motor. But the echo off the canyon walls made it difficult to tell how far away the car was or if it was even coming towards him at all.  
He paused a second, wondering if he should slip into the ditch and resume his walk or just transform and drive the last twenty minutes away. In which case would earn himself a lecture from his over-protective assistant who would doubtless be able to tell Knockout had been driving and would assume the worst.  
Before he could decide the sudden wail of sirens startled him into immobility.

  
So when the car came speeding around the corner he just stared like a deer in the headlights.

  
Brakes squealed but that didn't make any difference as the car plowed headlong into Knockout's legs and they both went skidding off the road and into that ditch he should have jumped into in the first place.  
Despite the burning pain in his lower legs, Knockout managed to keep still until the sirens went roaring past.

  
As soon as the sharp wails faded away he pulled himself out from beneath the vehicle. He was damaged, but it was nothing Breakdown couldn't fuss out.  
The human driver on the other hand...

  
They looked young, but Knockout wasn't sure. What he did know was that they were slumped over the steering wheel completely still, shards of glass sprayed across their blood streaked face.

  
And it was all Knockout's fault.

  
In the space of a second he considered trying to rush the human to the nearest hospital, discarded the idea because he didn't know where the nearest hospital was or how to get the human in the hospital without revealing himself. And then decided that the only other option was to fix the human himself.  
Carefully he eased open the crushed cardoor and slipped the limp into his hand.  
He wasn't even sure they were breathing.

  
"Requesting Groundbridge."

  
\----

  
"Yes Shockwave, I'm sure Knockout will be fascinated," Starscream replied automatically.

He'd always been aware of the doctor's distaste for Shockwave and even thought he'd known the various reasons why. But apparently the topmost reason was that Shockwave was obsessed with Knockout's approval. Every time he addressed Starscream it was either to ask when the doctor was coming to his packrat's nest of a lab or whether Starscream thought whatever unholy mess he'd cooked up would interest Knockout.

  
Starcream had stopped paying attention after the first five seconds.

  
He had a lot of things to think about and only so many ways to distract himself from thinking about them. So far, plastering himself to a spare microscope was really the only one that seemed to work and even that dug up uncomfortable memories.

  
"What even is he doing?"

  
Oh yes, that was probably the only thing that had kept Starscream from falling apart the past two weeks of Megatron's bizarre, good-as-dead stasis and she was making a funny face at Shockwave's non-face.

  
"It's better not to ask," he replied to Sierra and held his hand out to her "Either it will unsettle you morally or give you a headache. Or both."

  
"Right," she stepped onto his hand and began climbing up his arm towards his shoulder.

  
"Is Knockout planning on ever going in there?"

  
"Mm, Knockout has much more important things to do than step into a lab that violates every single health code standards there ever were."

  
"Like taking walks?"

  
Sierra startled as Breakdown materialized from apparently nowhere. Starscream didn't so much as flinch at the sudden apperance or the accusatory tone, having had much longer to accept that a large orange con could easily be a masterspy.  
And a mother hen.

  
"Clears his mind."

  
"But the racing-"

  
"He promised he wouldn't and I have full faith in him."

  
Breakdown didn't have the same faith and argued all the way down to the medical bay that Knockout shouldn't be let off the ship on his own.  
"Listen Breakdown," Starscream started as they stepped into the infirmary and then stopped as he saw Soundwave curled up in a limp bundle next to Megatron's slab.

  
"Oh dear."

  
"Shh!" Raf was balanced on a narrow shoulder, a finger pressed to his lip "They're asleep." he hissed.

  
So Lazerbeak was there too. Of course she would be.

  
"How long have they been here?" Starscream asked in a lowered voice.

  
Raf shrugged, his own voice a hoarse whisper "A while. He woke up about fifteen minutes ago to bridge Doc Knoc back, then fell back asleep again."

  
"Knockout's back early?" Starscream's wings rose and Breakdown's face crumpled in a frown.

  
"He's never back early," The orange con muttered and stalked off to the opposite side of the bay.

  
Before he reached it, the doctor in question appeared from behind an empty slab, an expression stretched across his face that looked like it was trying to be a smile.

  
"What did you do to yourself?" Breakdown started off with a shout and dropped to a whisper at Raf's 'shhh!".

Knockout glanced down at his mangled legs with no change of expression "There was an accident."

  
"You promised me you weren't racing!"

  
"I wasn't, I wasn't even in vehicle mode," Knockout was answering Breakdown, but Sierra caught him glancing over at Starscream, his expression flickering each time "The human hit me."

  
"You're joking."

  
Knockout's smile folded up into a glare and Breakdown shook his head.

  
"What happened?" Starscream asked with a tired thin patience.

  
Knockout explained.

  
"And then what?" Starscream asked when he was nearly finished "You apologized for walking in the middle of road and sent them back on their way?"

  
"Um."

  
"Oh no you didn't," Sierra burst out and everyone looked at her.

  
"Didn't what?" Knockout tried to deflect.

  
"You brought them here didn't you?" Sierra felt Starscream tense underneath her feet.

  
"Well that'd be ridiculous wouldn't it?"

  
Starscream pinned the doctor with a blue glare and Knockout gave up.

  
"Well it was my fault and...well I couldn't leave them but I had no idea where the nearest hospital was and...and..."

  
"And what were you planning on doing with them once you'd fixed them up? Put them back with the crashed car or bridge them back into their living room."

  
"Ahh, well, I haven't gotten to that part yet."

"And when, exactly, were you going to get to that part?"

  
"Ehh...."

  
\----

  
Fowler's fingers drummed a tuneless march on his desk as he glared darkly at his computer screen. Numbers and lines marched away like tiny soldiers.

  
Wrong numbers. Wrong soldiers.

  
Two weeks. Two weeks those Autobots had been lying through teeth to him. Two weeks there had been zero Decepticon activity.  
Two weeks he had zero reliable intel, because the only source on the Aubots was the Autobots and he couldn't trust them an further than he could throw them.  
He needed something...someone on the inside who he could trust without question and would obey him without question.

  
He had the entire army at his disposal, but still individual soldiers were still soldiers who had ties elsewhere, obligations to other people than him.  
No, he needed someone from the outside.

  
Slowly a smile grew across his face and he reached for his phone.  
While he dialed, General Fowler's smile grew to a full on grin.

  
\----

  
In Jasper Nevada, Jackson Darby's phone rang.


	21. Chapter 21

Vincent woke up with stinging pains all across his face and a massive bone deep ache in his right shoulder.

Oh right. Car accident. What had he hit again? Or had he lost control going around that corner? It was pretty blurry. But was he still in the car? He hurt, sure, but not that bad. He wasn't...he couldn't...not a hospital. They couldn't have caught him! At the startling thought his eyes flicked open and dazedly he stared around at was most definitly not a hospital room. The ceiling was too far away.

"Hey, wakey wakey."

Vince nearly punched the kid when he spoke.

Owlish eyes blinked down at the spot Vince had been lying on, then up at Vince who was standing now, arm half raised.

"Woah."

"Hey wait a second," Vince lowered his arm, mainly because of the overwhelming jolt of pain that ran through him "You're dead."

"No, I'm Raf," the younger boy held out plastic carton "Blueberry?"

Vince stared at it, then shook his head.

"You sure? Last one."

"No, no thank you," Vince thought about Persephone and the pomegrante seeds and this couldn't possible be the underworld could it? He couldn't be dead. He could still feel pain. Although, how exactly did anyone know that pain wasn't as much a part of death as it was life.

"Where are we?"

"Spaceship," Rafael replied unhelpfully.

"Uh huh, right," Vince ran his fingers through his hair. If this was death he regretted ever living.

"Raf! Your dog ate my granola bars again!" Someone he couldn't see shouted and he turned to see Sierra stomping towards them.

"You're dead too!" He burst out before he could think.

"Raf! You were supposed to tell us if he woke up!" Sierra paused midstep and redirected her attention to Vince

"Wait, dead?" He nodded.

"How?"

"W-what?"

"How are they telling people I died?"

It took Vince a moment to process. He hadn't been too focused on other peoples' problems lately "You jumped off a bridge or something."

She flicked her shoulder in a shrug and he was pretty sure her eye twitched "Close enough."

"What I want to know is how you ended up in the middle of Texas," Raf broke in around a mouthful of blueberries.

"I was having a very nice drive until I hit something."

"Knockout."

"Yeah," Vince couldn't help rolling his eyes "I know I got knocked out."

"No, that's who you hit, Knockout."

"You didn't explain anything to him at all did you?"

Raf shrugged "He literally just woke up."

"Okay, explain what? What is going on? Where even are we?"

"Good questions. Sit," Sierra jabbed at the pile of blankets around Vince's feet, which he realized he must have been laying on before he woke up.

He sat.

\----

Jack was pretty sure he should have skipped lunch. Nothing had happened yet, but the way his step-father's silence stretched on and on made him nervous and his only hope for answers was the file sitting in his lap. Even without opening it he knew there was going to be a lot of information. But he still felt dismayed at the amount of papers when he opened it. Was he supposed to READ all this? But Fowler was still as talkative as about a rock, so, unfortunatly, the paper was his best bet. So he read it. Then he read it again. Then he looked at Fowler

"I have exams tomorrow." No answer, but Jack expected that. "Last week you gave me a three hour lecture about my grades and now aliens."

"I'll contact the school."

"This is the worst joke ever."

"I am not joking."

"Sure," Jack chewed on his lip as Fowler drove straight off the road towards the wall of rock. This was in that mountain of paper wasn't it? Still, his skin crawled as the mesa swallowed them up.

\----

"I won't have it!" Arcee shrieked up at Optimus "I won't! I won't stand it!"

"It's just a human," Wheeljack tried to soothe from the sidelines, but didn't actually try to step inbetween them.

"A human! A human killed Cliffjumper!"

"Not this particular one."

The venom in Arcee's eyes had Smokescreen scuttling back like a scared crab. "Arcee, do you doubt me?" Optimus rumbled and a less bot, or perhaps wiser bot, would have backed down. She didn't blink.

"Yes," she hissed "I doubt that you're letting a slimy, filthy disgusting, organic human into our ranks. It's going to spy on us!"

The room held its breath as Optimus stared her down.

"That's the point," Bulkhead mumbled after a terse few seconds and Optimus shot him a cold smile.

"What?" Arcee snapped, glancing between the two of them.

"The human will be a spy," Bulkhead said slowly, eyes narrowing "And we could use a spy."

"What are you spouting off now? You sound like an idiot."

"Arcee, Bulkhead sees twice as clear what you don't see at all," Optimus intterupted her "the humans are sending a spy. What are the best qualifications for a spy?"

Arcee answered without hesitation "Someone who looks the most incapable." "Exactly," The Prime chuckled roughly "Lately, who's been looking out for incapable humans?"

It took a moment to register, then Arcee's eyes lit up.

"And here is our spy now," Optimus turned as General Fowler's vehicle pulled out of the tunnel.

\----

Vince felt like... he couldn't think of a comparison. His head swam, his stomach was unsettled, and the multiple cuts across his body ached. "So...so they're fighting...why?" He asked, having missed the past minute or so of the joint explination.

"Okay, so they had a planet wide caste system," Sierra backtracked "but, it was, like, terrible, so-" She was cut off by the hiss of the massive doors as they opened and something entered, a huge...yeah, a really big...thing. "Hey Dreadwing!" Sierra hopped up and waved at him.

"Ah, Sierra, Raf, human who hit the doctor. Weren't you supposed to tell us when he woke up?"

"I was getting to that part," Sierra defended "I was just explaining why he was on an alien warship and why the aliens needed a warship."

"Cauzza the war."

Vince flinched as a long gangly red one appeared out of basically nowhere, swaying from one foot to the other.

"Soundwave, I thought Knockout kicked you out of the medbay." Soundwave shrugged vaugly at Dreadwing and leaned heavy on the counter "I came back." "Obviously," Dreadwing gave him a concerned look.

"So...yeah, Soundwave you explain the war thing," Sierra said "You were there." "Yeah sure, why not," Soundwave reached out and for a heartstopping Vince thought the giant would pick him up. But spindly fingers wrapped around Raf and Carmine, then deposited them on a narrow shoulder. "You told him about the caste system?"

Sierra nodded.

"The what system?" Vince asked.

"Riiight," Soundwave breathed out what almost sounded like a laugh "Okay, you told him about altmodes?"

"Well duh."

"Yeah, they told me."

"Okay so there's a buncha weird techy stuff but we are forged with an alt and used to be we weren't allowed to change it. Your alt was your life. If you had a weird alt that didn't fit in, you got put in the pits to fit. That's where Megatron and I ended up. It was cut off from everything. No one there knew that life could be any better, y'know?

Then this wacko shows up, he's looking for the Matrix of Leadership, an ancient artifact that used to be used to choose the next leader of Cybertron. Anyway this kid, Orion Pax, thinks it's in the catacombs under the arena. Everyone else laughed at him, but Megatron felt bad, or curious. Orion's alt put him on the very edge of acceptable society. He had it bad but he could see what life should be like and he had a whole pack of ideas of how to fix things. It fascinated Megatron. Gave him ideas.

They didn't find the Matrix but Orion kept coming back. He and Megatron would talk for hours, but I didn't realize things were about to change until after a fight, a death match. Megatron won, but then, he stood in front of that sick mob and he said...he said, oh Primus it was so long ago, he went on about how the guy he killed didn't want to die, how he'd never done anything wrong ever but the system doomed him to die because he didn't fit in. He talked for nearly an hour and everyone listened and yeah, things started to change. Megatron and Orion got noticed by all the wrong and all the right people and at first they thought they could change things together. But Orion wanted to return to the reign of the Primes, while Megatron just wanted to change the Council.

They couldn't agree and at one point Orion stormed off and no one saw him for days. Seeing an oppertunity, the Council produced some fake charges and sentenced me, Megatron, and a coupla others to death through forced labor in the mines. We were pretty sure we were gonna die, but we weren't down there more than a day when Orion came back... he'd found the Matrix and forced his body to accept it and when he came back, killed the Council. He thought Megatron would join him, once he had the Matrix,"

Soundwave huffed again "Boy was he wrong. Megatron refused and so did about half of Cybertron and everyone's been at each other's throats since."

"Wow," Vince said "that's crazy."


	22. pt 22

"The Itsy Bitsy Human hide beneath the couch," Smokescreen sang as he pinched Jack's leg and tugged on it, trying to extricate the terrified boy from the piece of furniture "Off snapped his arms because he wouldn't come out and say hi!"

  
"Alright! Alright!" Jack screamed "Let go and I'll come out!"

  
Smokescreen released him and Jack pulled his legs under the couch with the rest of his body.  
"Hey! Liar! Get out!" Smokescreen picked the couch up and gave it a violent shake. 

  
Jack wailed in terror as he lost his grip and and went plummeting. His "internship" would have ended approximately eight minutes and thirty nine seconds after it had began if Optimus hadn't caught him.  
Jack grit his teeth, there was nothing to be done about the tears, he was already crying a river, but he could at least keep from sobbing.  
It was hard, Optimus's broad flat hand wasn't much softer than the concrete floor and Optimus had some bizarre current running through him, like electricity. It raced through Jack's bones and settled in his stomach, sickening him.

  
"Smokescreen I told you not to touch the human!"

  
Smokescreen tried to whimper out an apology but Optimus had already dumped Jack onto the platform and wound his arm back.  
Smokescreen shrieked as he made a dent in the far wall.

  
"Wait! Don't! I said I was sorry!" The rest of his apology as drowned out by the sound his metal made as his crumpled beneath Optimus' fists.  
"Issit dead?" 

  
Jack looked up in time to see another huge hand descending.  
"I'm fine! Leave me alone!"

  
Ratchet didn't seem to get the message and continued to try to poke at him.  
Jack gave up and dashed off the platform, but before he'd gotten far, he tripped.  
As he tried to scramble back up, Optimus threw Smokescreen across the room again and he landed inches away from Jack.  
Jack stumbled and fell to his knees again and couldn't manage to get back up.  
Again he found himself being scooped up, though this time it was the only possibly sane Autobot.

  
"Are you damaged?"

  
Jack shook his head.  
Wheeljack surveyed the chaos of the base then looked back at Jack "I am going to patrol, you will accompany me."

  
"Yeah, sure, I'll accompany you," Jack agreed. Any reason to get out of there.

  
\----

  
Vince wasn't sure when Raf and Sierra left, but he was glad they were gone. They kept talking and he just couldn't focus on what they were saying.  
Dreadwing and Soundwave had gone too and it was quiet except for the quiet hum of some unseen machines.  
He could almost fall asleep if it wasn't for the persistent ache in his shoulder.  
Distantly he heard the doors open and the clomp of metal feet approaching, but he didn't bother looking up until he heard a faint sigh.

  
"Are you awake?"

  
With considerably more effort then such a small task warranted, Vince managed to nod his head.

  
"You'll be wanting these," out of the corner of his eye, Vince saw a slender hand set down a human-sized water bottle and box.

  
"What...is it?" Vince managed, reaching to open the box.

  
"Pain medication. Take two pills and swallow them with water and then try to rest."

  
Vince managed to pick out two pills and downed them with a gulp of the lukewarm water.

  
He settled back and forced his neck to arch up enough to look at the 'con "You're Knockout."

  
"I'm surprised you remember me," the doctor raised an brow and squinted his blue eyes.

  
"Don't," Vince laughed softly "Your legs...all busted up...from when I hit you...Sorry 'bout that."

  
"Ahh," Knockout glanced down "Don't worry, it's really just cosmetic. I'll replace it all later."

  
"You can do that?"

  
"Yes. No big deal. However humans take quite a long time to repair themselves and the process is expedited by rest."

  
"If you didn't want to bother with me, you coulda left me in the car."

  
"Well the accident was my fault."

  
"I was speeding," Vince pointed out.

  
"True."

  
\----

  
It was hours later. Knockout had been bustled off to his quarters for some recharge by Breakdown and Starscream, Vince was asleep, and Soundwave was supposed to be sleeping, not curled up again next to Megatron's sickbed.  
So naturally when the doors whooshed open, he thought he was busted and Breakdown was going to haul him off for bridge duty or something totally unimportant like fighting Autobots.

  
"Woah," said definitely not Breakdown "What happened to him?"

  
Soundwave shot his most venomous glare up at Shockwave, it was totally negated by his mask, but it was the thought that counted.  
"What do you mean what happened to him? Where have you been?"

  
"By my calculations, I was in the laboratory."

  
Soundwave let his head fall back down back to the edge of the slab "You're useless."

  
"Hey, I can do stuff. That makes me not useless," Shockwave poked Megatron hesitantly "So, what's wrong with him?"

  
Soundwave sighed "Optimus shot him and now he just won't wake up."

  
"Huh, weird."

  
"Yeah, 'weird'," Soundwave snapped sarcastically "Like you know anything about it."

  
"Actually," Shockwave jabbed his finger in the air for emphasis "I might."

  
Soundwave slowly changed each pixel across his mask until it was an angry Autobot red.

  
"No, I'm serious. Ever heard of a cortical physic patch?"

  
"You talk about it all the time, you made it."

  
"I made it!...Oh wait... Well yes, I made it, and you know what it does?"

  
"Yes. I. Do." Soundwave stood up "And if you don't get to your point Right. Now. I'm going to bridge you back to that swamp and bury you myself."

  
Unfazed by Soundwave's mean cop act, Shockwave continued "He's registering brainwave activity, right?"

  
Soundwave shrugged and pointed towards a screen "He's not dead!"

  
"So yes."

  
"The point?!"

  
"Well, what I'm trying to say that maybe, Megatron's mind is stuck in some sort of endless loop. If someone entered his mind via my brilliant cortical patch, it's probably possible that they could break the loop, so to speak and wake him up."

  
Soundwave was quiet for a second, then he nodded "I'll do it."

  
Shockwave, apparently bored of the conversation, had already started to putter off.

  
"Shockwave! Get the patch! We're doing this right now!"

  
"Cool."

  
\----

  
The cord stung as Shockwave attached it to the back of his neck and Soundwave shifted uneasily on the slab.

  
"Activating in three...two...one."

  
It was like the moment a ship hit lightspeed as the stars stretched out in the darkness and then evaporated into darkness. Only this wasn't space and he was in freefall into Megatron's mind.

  
\----

  
Wheeljack's alt had that new car smell, which was strange, considering how old he was supposed to be.  
Maybe, Jack thought, everything sort of updated when they scanned a new form, or maybe it was because Wheeljack never had passengers mucking up his insides.  
Either way, the smell made Jack feel a bit nauseous. 

  
And Wheeljack kept talking, even though Jack never replied, explaining his every move to the boy. It gave Jack the feeling that the massive, ancient alien was actually as uncomfortable with the situation as he was. Which was impossible, what did he have to worry about? He was massive and ancient and made out of metal.

  
"I'm tracking two separate Energon signals, both weak and very close together. Most likely two small natural deposits."

  
"Cool." Like, what? Was Jack supposed to care or something. He was all set to zone out again when Wheeljack swerved off the road without a warning and threw Jack against the door.

  
"Hey! You know we have roads for a reason right!?"

  
"What we're looking for isn't on your road," Wheeljack replied shortly and Jack decided that maybe he shouldn't push his luck with the only giant alien that didn't seem intent on killing him.

  
Several uncomfortable minutes passed with Jack staring blankly down at his hands. Wheeljack began to slow down, then finally cut his engine and rolled to a stop.

  
Jack dared look up "Woah. Are those..."

  
"Cybertronian ships? Yeah, they are."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Giant alien ships laying about in the open? More likely than you think!


	23. pt 23

It was...weird. Like a dream kinda weird.   
The world around him was in sharp relief, detailed as if he was actually standing there, on the edge of the Sea of Chrome, but Soundwave could...feel like it wasn't right?  
He wasn't great at describing things, but yeah, not right sounded about right.  
Maybe everything was shining just a little too bright or the ground wasn't hard enough under his feet or the tips of his fingers felt a bit numb, or all of it. And maybe because he vaguely remembered Shockwave talking him through a cortical physic patch.   
Anyways, he stepped forwards, or imagined stepping forwards, towards the unmistakable silhouette.

"Megatron?"

Megatron didn't turn or give any indication that he had heard Soundwave.

Soundwave reached out and brushed his fingers against Megatron's shoulder "Hey?"

Megatron lifted his head and glanced back, a faint smile on his face, eyebrows raised.

"Hey, Meg, you need to wake up, 'kay? Wake up."

Megatron blinked "Soundwave, I'm not asleep."

"No, I'm mean, not really, but you kinda are."

Megatron laughed and shook his head "Soundwave."

"Listen to me, okay? You're hurt and....and if you don't wake up..." Soundwave stopped before his voice cracked "Just wake up, okay?"

Megatron sighed and sat, his legs dangling off the edge of the cliff "Soundwave, as far as pranks go, this isn't the best."

"It's not a prank! Megatron! Seriously!"

"Serious isn't even a word you should be allowed to say."

Frustrated, Soundwave flopped down next to him and tangled his fingers together "Don't you remember? Don't you?"

"Remember what?" Megatron replied, his eyes fixed dead ahead.

"Prime? When he shot you?...and you fell?... and the Insecticons?"

Megatron laughed again softly "Did you have a bad batch of Energon, 'Wave?"

"Why won't you just wake up?!" Without thinking, Soundwave lashed out at him and smacked him across forearm.

The clunk of metal on metal was audible, but Soundwave didn't hit him with nearly enough force to injure. But something happened.  
Megatron flinched, kinda of. It was more like the whole dreamworld flickered. For an instant, the sea of Chrome turned black and the sky went overcast with dust and darkness. The way it was the day they left Cybertron.   
Then it went back to gleaming, pristine memory.  
But Megatron had seen it.

"Soundwave...what was that?"

\----

"What were you thinking?"

Starscream had never heard Knockout hiss like that and would have stepped between the angry doctor and Shockwave, if he himself wasn't so angry at the scientist himself.

"I was just trying to help, y'know?" Shockwave said, shrugging.

"You could kill both of them!" Knockout was hovering over the vitals readout, scowling "Did you even stop to think?"

"Think about what?"

Starscream fought to urge to just leave and let Knockout deal with Shockwave and Breakdown deal with Knockout. But at the moment he was in charge and it was up to him to be responsible because at the moment no one else was going to be.

"Knockout, can we disconnect them?"

"Yes, yes I can and I suggest it as an immediate course of action, followed directly by me integrating Shockwave with the engine core."

"Do it," then at the startled look Breakdown shot him, Starscream amended "Disconnect them, don't...you can't incinerate Shockwave. We have a no incineration of coworkers policy."

Sierra snickered quietly and Starscream remembered he had both the children on his shoulder. Sierra looked vaguely concerned, but Raf was staring, horrified, at Soundwave's limp form.   
The sooner this was over, the better.  
And the alarm klaxons blared.

"Oh NOW what?" Starscream opened his comm "8-17, what is going on?"

"We're picking up on Enemy Autobot activity and a Decepticon distress beacon."

"A Decepticon?"

"There where a lot of deployed escape pods from the other ships when we bridged to Earth," Breakdown injected quietly "It's possible that one made it through the portal with us and it didn't come up on scans."

"Or it's a trap," Knockout supplied helpfully."

Breakdown shrugged "Or that."

"We'll send a team down, check it out," Starscream sighed "Breakdown you're coming, Knockout, make sure no one up here dies. No one."

"Alright," Knockout huffed and shot a dirty look at Shockwave.

"Dreadwing, 78, 79, report to the Bridge."

\----

Soundwave felt something pulling and the dreamscape started to melt and Megatron flickered.

"Soundwave?" Megatron reached out and his fingers passed through Soundwave's hand "What's...?"

They were pulling him out, they were pulling him out, but Megatron was still there, still asleep.  
Soundwave yanked against the pulled, trying to focus on re solidifying himself and for an instant he could feel Megatron gripping his wrist.   
And everything went painfully dark.

\----

Megatron sat up, head pounding in the worst ache he'd had in centuries.

"You've done some truly stupid things throughout the entire time I've know you, but this really is one of the worst Soundwave."

Megatron twisted, realizing that the rest of his body felt disproportionately undamaged compared to his head. He found that Knockout was staring at him.

"Soundwave? Did you hear me? You're an idiot."

Megatron looked past the doctor at his own prone body, then down at the body he currently inhabited.

"Yeah, he's stupid," Megatron muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh


	24. pt 24

"Stay here this time," Starscream said, depositing all three children on the nearest console. He'd picked up Vince in the medical bay, after deciding that it would probably be safer for small broken humans anywhere Knockout wasn't about to start a fight.

"Keep an eye on them," he told 76 and the Eradicon nodded.

"Everyone else, let's head out."

76 activated the Groundbridge and it came to life with its typical roar of physics being defied. Starscream set his wings and drew his swords out, then stepped through, followed by Dreadwing, Breakdown, 78, and Q-T. As he stepped off the Groundbridge, Starscream found himself dangling off the edge of a spaceship wing. He yelped and before he went tumbling wings over t-cog, Breakdown had snagged him by the wings and hauled him back to safety.

"Well, at least it wasn't a lake this time," he muttered, regaining his balance "Everyone alright?"

"Dreadwing fell off," Q-T announced and pointed off the edge, where the large seeker had indeed plummeted and hit the ground before he could think to transform.

"Is he okay?" Starscream paused and activated his comm "Dreadwing, report your status."

There was a burst of static and Starscream could just barely make out Dreadwing speaking, but not the words.

"Dreadwing, I can't hear you, check your comm for damage and-" before he could finish, a burst of weapons fire tore across the spaceship wing.  
"Everybody take cover!" Starscream shouted the order and the whole pack of 'Cons went dashing to the other side of the wing. 

Without any hesitation Q-T flung himself off the wing and swan dived into a tree.

With a healthy amount of hesitation Breakdown paused, grabbed the edge of the wing, and lowered himself down. Starscream and 78 descended using their thrusters.

"How are we going to get Q-T down?" 78 began to ask, fortunately, before anyone had to think of any answers, the Vehicon came crashing down and landed at the base of the tree.   
Oh his head.

"Nevermind," 78 sighed. 

"You alright?" Breakdown asked, hauling the Vehicon back to his feet and brushing him off.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Q-T shook himself off "What's the plan Commander?"

"We make our way around back to Dreadwing, then we get inside the ship and see if there are any injured," Starscream drew his swords "Everyone understand?" 

There was a nod of agreement all around.

\----

Dreadwing woke with a stinging pain in his left arm and an unfamiliar figure looming over him. Without hesitating he reached for his broadsword and swung it upwards.  
The stranger shrieked and melted into the shadows as if it had never been there at all, leaving Dreadwing to scramble to his feet.   
He pressed his injured arm against his chest and leveled his sword to the dark. He was in one of the spaceships and had been hauled in if the mud tracks were anything to go by.

"Show yourself," he ordered the empty room "I saw you."

The was a soft tapping of feet, but no one appeared.

"I know you're there, I can here you. You a 'Con?"

"Yes," the answer was barely a breathed whisper "I am."

He lowered his sword, brow wrinkled as he tried to place the voice "Then show yourself."

There was a hesitation, then, like she was melting from another dimension, she flickered into view.

Dreadwing's grip on his sword went lax as he stared in shock at her.

"Airachnid?"

\----

"You screwed up! Bad! Really, really bad!"

"It's a breakthrough! A scientific discovery!"

"It's a scientific screw up! A colossal mistake!"

Megatron watched through Soundwave's eyes as Knockout and Shockwave squared off at opposite ends of his berth and had a full on yelling fight. They were also checking the monitors and frantically marking things down on datapads.

Megatron began to tune them out as he stared dully at his own body, where, he desperately hoped, Soundwave's consciousness was trapped.

Knockout paused in ranting at Shockwave and turned to Megatron "It's likely to assume you and him switched places, since the readings on...your body, stayed constant. We're still getting brainwave activity from the machines."

"If we hook the patch up again-" Megatron started and Knockout cut him off at 500 mph.

"Bad idea, as in, terribly stupid bad idea. We didn't even know this was possible, attempting to repeat the action would not be wise."

Megatron's shoulders sank "What's wrong with...uh me?"

"Prime shot you."

"I rememer that. Vividly."

"Well the impact left you pretty jarred. I think it disconnected something in your brain module, but with all the other damage I didn't want to risk surgery until I was positive you were stable...Shockwave don't touch that!" Knockout chased off the errant scientist from a monitor.  
Suddenly the doctor froze, then spun around to view the entire medibay.

"Where's Vince?"

Shockwave looked up from poking at Megatron's inert form "Who's Vince?"

"Why is Vince?" 

Shockwave and Knockout both turned to look at Megatron.

"I mean, why is there a Vince on my ship?"

"It... I mean he, is a human."

"We picked up another human?"

"Uh...yes."

"The human hit Knockout with a car," Shockwave supplied, earning him him a glare from the doctor.

"That's not important right now. What's important is-"

"You lost him?"

Knockout sighed, looking defeated, then clicked his comm on "Where the scrap did my human go?"


	25. pt 25

"So, what is it?" Smokescreen directed a kick at the massive pod. He would have called it a stasis pod...but it was huge.

  
"Don't do that!" Wheeljack hissed as the echo of Smokescreen's foot meeting the base of the pod echoed through the ship.

"Why not?" Smokescreen kicked it again "It's not like it's a-"

  
He was cut off by the pod abruptly powering up, illuminating the gargantuan form that laid eerily still.  
"Who..." Smokescreen didn't have enough breath left in him to even finish the word.

  
Wheeljack slowly curled his hands into fists "Ultra Magnus."

  
Smokescreen made a choking noise and took an big step back as if the inert bot was a live bomb.   
Not an unfair comparison, Wheeljack thought.  
There was a chirp on his comm. 

  
"Con's brought backup," he sighed, looking at the message Bumblebee had sent him "We need to wake him up."  
"Are. You. Joke-"

  
"I'm not. Come on."

  
Smokescreen balked visibly, eyes fixed in terror at the Magnus.

  
"Call yourself an Autobot?" Wheeljack snapped "This your brother in arms. You fight alongside him, you do not fear him."  
Smokescreen didn't say anything.  
Wheeljack shook his head and stepped to a console, tapping at it. With a hiss and a cloud of vapor, the locks on the pod disengaged. There was a second of breathless silence.

  
Then, red eyes opened. 

  
\----  
The group of 'Cons had just made their way around to the front of the ship, dodging Bumblebee's intermittent fire when a screech of metal being rent cause everyone to freeze.  
Bumblebee was flung from his post overlooking the entrance to the Autobot ship as a massive figure heaved itself way from the dark into the pale daylight.

For a second, the Decepticons stared in shock as Ultra Magnus slowly steadied himself, still shaking the effects of stasis. Then he looked down at them and laughed.

  
\----

  
"But how? How are you here? You disappeared...so long ago," Dreadwing struggled over his words

  
"I was attacked," Airachnid replied quietly "We lost our engines and had to go into stasis."

  
"We?"

  
Airachnid's already worried frown deepend further "My partner's stasis pod seems to have malfunctioned. He's fine, but he won't wake up."  
There was a burst of yelling and screeching from outside, making them both flinch.

  
"We need to get you out of here," Dreadwing said hefting his sword "Can we move your partner?"

  
"Yes," Airachnid's spindly extra legs jittered nervously against her back "I'll get him."

  
She disappeared for a second time then returned, cradling something in her arms.

  
"Is he-?"

  
"A minicon? Yes."

  
Dreadwing shrugged.At least he'd be easy to get out of there. 

  
"Alright, stay right with me, okay?"

  
She nodded nervously.  
Dreadwing huffed as another battle cry sounded from outside and reached out to disengage the locks on the bay door.

  
\----

  
It was utter chaos the second they stepped outside, laserfire as thick as dust in the air around them.  
Almost immediately Dreadwing was separated from Airachnid as they dove in separate directions for cover.

  
"Rach?" Dreadwing tried to turn back towards the spidercon but then sudden flash of a massive blade descending towards his head had him scrambling backwards.  
The blade burrowed into the ground inches from where he had stood and Airachnid screamed, either in fear or as a warning.

Either way Dreadwing wasn't fast enough to avoid Ultra Magnus' fist.

  
Heavy knuckles connected with the side of his face and sent him flying backwards into a tree.

  
The landing must have damaged his audio receptors because as he tried to pick himself up all he could hear was a long dull whine.

  
But his eyes were working fine and he could clearly see as the Groundbridge opened up, as the other cons began to retreat, as Airachnid stumbled...

As Ultra Magnus swept towards her, swinging his blade. 

  
Breakdown was turning back, but he wasn't close enough, nowhere near close enough.

  
Dreadwing barely registered moving but suddenly he was shoving himself in front of Airachnid just as she got her legs under her and just as Magnus brought down his blade.  
The spiderbot opened her mouth but didn't make a sound as she was sprayed with Energon and Dreadwing sank to his knees.

  
Magnus raised his blade again, startling Airachnid from her shock and she turned and ran for the Groundbridge.  
  



	26. Chapter 26

Magnus bellowed in frustration as he realized the rest of the Decepticons had escaped and promptly took his rage out on Dreadwing's leaking corpse.  
With muted horror Wheeljack and Smokescreen watched as the behemoth shredded the Seeker. Even Bumblebee, expressionless as he was, seemed uncomfortable.

"Are we sure we want to bring him back to base?" Smokescreen whispered, then yelped as a finger soared through the air and smacked him in the forehead.

"He's one of us," Wheeljack said sternly, but he sounded strained "He's one of the greatest soldiers Prime trained."

Bumblebee's shoulder's sank marginally as what was left of Dreadwing's shredded winglet was ground into the dust beneath a massive foot.

\----

Airachnid stumbled through the Groundbridge and fell to her knees, sobbing and still clutching her inert partner.

"What in the name of-" Knockout cut himself off as he did a double take on the returning cons "Where's Dreadwing?"

Starscream's already limp wings sank even lower, so that they almost brushed the floor and Breakdown was shaking his head even before Knockout had finished asking the question.  
The other cons were silent, already too used to the simple words and gestures. Sierra, who was perched on the Groundbridge controls next to Raf, didn't say anything either, her eyes large as she realized just what had happened. Vince too, who was on Knockout's shoulder, was quiet.   
Raf, however...

"Where's Dreadwing?" he piped up, his voice thin and shrill "Starscream? What happened?" 

Breakdown turned "Raf, c'mere," he held his hand out and the little boy scrambled up, eyes too wide and his fingers curled into fists.  
Breakdown carried away the young boy to a far corner of the room, his voice low and only the tone carrying rather than his words.

Knockout sighed heavily and turned to Airachnid "Who's this?"

"Airachnid," Starscream knelt next to her "She was a scout who was lost...decades ago along with... Oh dear."

"What?" 

Starscream put one hand on Airachnid's shaking shoulder and with the other reached out for the con she was clutching. She relinquished hold of them without even looking up.  
"I can't..." she took a deep breath trying to get a hold of herself "The stasis lock disengaged and he never woke up."

"Oh," Knockout said as Starscream straightened and the doctor realized he was holding Ravage "I have a theory."

\----

"Laserbeak isn't working either?"

Laid out side by side in the medbay, it was pretty clear neither of the minicons were "working".  
Starscream rounded on the gangly form of Soundwave, wings flared out in obvious frustration. 

"What did you do? How did you even managed to mess up this badly!? You could have killed yourself and Megatron and now...what... what did you do??"

There was an awkward silence that extended for several beats too long as "Soundwave" just stared at Starscream.

"You...told him, right?" Shockwave asked from the corner of the room he'd retreated to.

"That would be a good thing to do," Knockout said as he scanned the limp minicons "Since it was mostly your fault, you do it."

"Tell me what?" Starscream fixed Shockwave in a glare that was all too level "Shockwave."

"So uh," the scientist twisted his hands together as he looked everywhere except at the commander "Since no one ever lets me test the Cortical Physic Patch-"

"Because it's a really stupid dangerous invention," Knockout cut in.

"And because I haven't tested it super well uhh apparently there can be some...side affects?"

"Like?" 

"Like uh... if you forcibly disconnect two cons when one of them is in a coma and the other isn't prepared, their processes can switch."

Starscream's eyes slowly widened and he spun around, wings flickering and he pointed "So this...is.."

"Megatron," Shockwave pointed and awkwardly Megatron-in-Soundwave waved.

Starscream went alarmingly quiet, before leaving the medbay with only the click of his heels.  
Megatron started to follow him, but Sierra had already parkoured off the workbench and skittered after the commander and he stopped as she darted just inches past her foot.

"Wait, which one was that again?"

\----

Starscream stopped in the corridor several steps outside the medical bay, breathing hard and wings limp as he stared at the wall in front of him.  
"Are you okay?"  
He flinched and looked down at Sierra, not realizing she had followed him.

"Do I look okay?"

"Right... after you calm down are you going to be okay?"

"I... I think so," he knelt "It's just.. too much, Sierra, too much."

There was an awkward cough from behind them.

"It really is you," Starscream said with a sigh as he stood up "Soundwave could never sneak up on me."

"Don't know why, his feet are tiny."

Starscream laughed weakly.

\----

The first thing Wheeljack did as he came through the Groundbridge was to scoop up Jack, who had been sent back earlier, and stuff the boy into his subspace.  
Then, ignoring the squirming human inside his chest, Wheeljack turned to Optimus with a bow "My Prime I present to you the long lost Ultra Magnus."

Ultra Magnus strode forwards, shoving Wheeljack out of the way as he came face to face with Optimus.

"My Prime," the gargantuan growled.

"Magnus," Prime smiled coldly "What a fortunate turn of events."  
\----  
As the Prime was instantly wrapped in the recovered soldier Wheeljack wasted no time in slipping away from main room into on of the storage units.  
After a furtive glance around he opened his subspace and Jack all but came tumbling out into his hands.  
After what must have been a string of human curses, Jack managed to get to his feet.

"What was that!?" He demanded, running his hand over his hair, trying to straighten it "What did I do to deserve that!?"

"Listen to me," Wheeljack hissed in a hushed voice, glancing over his shoulder again "What we found in that ship after we sent you back was a soldier called Utra Magnus."

"Okay, so?" 

"Listen boy, Prime doesn't have anything for or against organics and he'll tolerate you as long as you're useful, but Ultra Magnus hates your type."

"Wh...why?" Jack looked like he was struggling to wrap his head around the information.

"He's messed up and you need to avoid him is all you need to know."


End file.
